Our educational system has been dumbed down for decades. And colleges now have remedial reading classes for incoming freshmen! If they cannot read, they have no business being in college (No matter if they can catch a ball or not!)
If we were smart, we would get copies of the curriculum from the 30's and start from there. And this business about no homework is nonsense!
The stuff they taught in the 1930's would be useless today. So would the stuff I was taught in the 50's and 60's.
Today's student need to learn to use technology, they need to learn science, not creationism, and math. And they need to learn to think for themselves, something American parents seem violently opposed to. Right wing parents was children to grow up to be good little conservatives, and they want their children to be taught to believe as they believe.
If Americans don't stop trying to politicize education, the U.S. will continue to decline in science, technology, and soon those declines will affect all aspects of their economic growth.