You can "AP out" of a bunch of freshman level college courses, thus saving a good deal of time and money, especially if you're at a state school where you pay by the course hour. You can graduate a year early if you're so inclined. Alternatively, you can spend more time taking courses in your major.
So the kids who had a good chance on the APs were already taking them.
The marginal kids, who may have decided that it wasn't worth their while to take the test and just get a 1 or a 2, are the ones who are signing on to get the money.
That's why the test scores went down. It ain't rocket science.
More liberal foolishness, due to their stubborn refusal to recognize the very existence of differences in intelligence/motivation.
Nope, no different at all -- not for libs whose goal it is to indoctrinate the class warfare mentality in their future permanent underclass.