Real reason for the fall of US education (skip to the end for the TL;DR)
- Decades of decimation of proper education funding
- Refusal to compensate teachers fairly
- Refusal to provide adequate resources to schools fairly
- Hyper-focus on sports over education
- Total politicization of material reality by the far-right
- The rich lobbying to defund public schools and fund private Christian schools
- Total destabilization of working class households (ex: parents bow having to prioritize working over involvement in their children's development)
- Total destruction of the job market
- Pollution causing genuine cognitive development problems
- Insurmountable cost of higher education
- The persistent threat of mass shootings at schools
TL;DR: late-stage capitalism, baby!