It’s no wonder why teachers and their unions refuse to be held accountable. It’s because they embrace and inculcate relativism and egalitarianism. Then they infect generations of children with the same. That’s what we’re facing today - these “chickens have come home to roost.” There are millions more behind them, and apparently there’s no political will to slam on the brakes.
"In modern times, the diligence of public teachers is more or less corrupted by the circumstances which render them more or less independent of their success and reputation in their particular professions. Their salaries, too, put the private teacher, who would pretend to come into competition with them, in the same state with a merchant who attempts to trade without a bounty in competition with those who trade with a considerable one." - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Bk.V, ch.1, 1776.