Ok, I have only my experience to go on, and since I was "Class of 75" that is a bit dated.
My 8 th grade graduated 18 students. Of those maybe 10 had reading ability above 4th grade level.
Except for rare exceptions, the young people I have met in later years show no improvement.
I see bright intelligent and imaginative kids put on drugs (Ritalin) rather than spending time to stimulate their brains.
I have seen College students that don't understand basic fundamentals.
There are people here that can not read the published works of our enemies and see what their plans are.
So yes, I am highly skeptical.
Yes..ok..life is not black and white. For instance, my wife teaches in a TITLE ONE grade school, low income. Included in this is minority, and immigrant families. Lots of these kids can barely read and speak english, and have emotional and family problems, which makes it somewhat difficult to deal with, especially during test time. Teachers have only so much time to help these kids, and the parents are clueless as to why 'johnnie' is having problems, because USUALLY the parents don't know or won't help in educating their kids.
I'm pretty sure these problems have been around awhile, and until you can come up with a better plan, besides homeschooling, or brain transplants, i'm pretty sure this will continue to be a problem.

