all you have to do is read this board to see that the educational system has totally failed and what it produces now.
people can't read, can't spell, don't even know what a preposition is any more much less which pronoun to use as the object (à la: "between you and i"), plus many, many other failures.
math (and i really mean arithmetic here), is no better. have a store computer go down and see if the clerk can make change. not even close.
classrooms are chaotic cesspools of self defense.
it gets worse: the teachers are now a product of this corrupt and inept system, so they are no longer capable of raising the level of learning.
adios department of education and good riddance. start over with education as a true, measurable goal.