Now you know where the occupy wall street crowd was educated and why they can't think

Diploma deception

Kids at CUNY community colleges aren’t cutting it, a new report shows — and it’s easy to see why: New York’s public high schools hand out too many diplomas to woefully unqualified students.

The report, released last Monday by the Center for the Urban Future, found that fewer than three out of 10 students at CUNY’stwo-year schools earn a degree withinsixyears; more than half drop out.

That’s astonishing. And disgraceful.

The report offers several explanations: “Community colleges are open-access institutions,” it notes, accepting whoever applies — even kids who aren’t academically ready (never mind what it says on their diplomas). Of those who come from public schools, “four out of five must take at least one remedial class.”Four out of five.

That stunning and shameful statistic backs state data, released for the first time last June, showing that just 21 percent of kids who started high school in 2006 were ready for college or a career by last year.

And yet the city “boasts” a four-year high-school graduation rate of 61 percent.

Why do so many kids get diplomas if they’re not ready to move on? Simple: Graduation requirements are too soft.

The report cites other reasons for the high community-college dropout rate: Some 30 percent of the kids, for example, spend 20-plus hours a week at a job. And “community colleges could and should be doing much better.” No doubt.

But let’s face it: Colleges’ hands are tied when kids are so far behind from the start. The figures merely point up what happens when K-12 schools stamp kids “ready” — when they’re simply not.

Make no mistake: Thestudentssuffer.

It’s up to Albany to fix this;itsets the standards — and the standards clearly need radical recalibration.

Ex-State Education Commissioner David Steiner made a good start by raising scores needed to pass state tests. (The new college/career readiness stats were another welcome step.)

And Steiner’s successor, John King, says he’s committed to continue the reforms.

Even so, the city and state have far to go.

Meantime, a lot of kids seem headed for failure. And that’s just not acceptable.