I’m glad you liked the article! As for your one disagreement with the quoted passage, I think the all in the phrase “all university mathematicians” is key to her point. Mathematicians at prestigious private universities and well-known state flagship universities are indeed able to teach university-level mathematics due to the adequate supply of mathematically-prepared students that remains despite bad k-12 math education. But a large percentage of university mathematicians are at less prestigious institutions where very few students major in math and most of the demand for math courses comes from students who didn’t have a good math experience in k-12 schooling (and weren’t taught math at home by mathematically savvy parents) but need to satisfy a gen ed requirement.
I’m glad you liked the article! As for your one disagreement with the quoted passage, I think the all in the phrase “all university mathematicians” is key to her point. Mathematicians at prestigious private universities and well-known state flagship universities are indeed able to teach university-level mathematics due to the adequate supply of mathematically-prepared students that remains despite bad k-12 math education. But a large percentage of university mathematicians are at less prestigious institutions where very few students major in math and most of the demand for math courses comes from students who didn’t have a good math experience in k-12 schooling (and weren’t taught math at home by mathematically savvy parents) but need to satisfy a gen ed requirement.