People here are smarter than you think, and I'm sure these comments are based on personal experience.
Kids in school today do far more homework than I ever did. I see kids walking to school in my town, and half of them are dragging home their books in wheeled luggage. If we're producing a "nation of idiots" then maybe that's part of the problem.
If you say so. That’s just not how I see it.
The idea of having set State standards for passing a grade sounds like common sense, doesn’t it? In practice, it limits the good teachers to “teach to the test” in large part and gives the few lazy-ass teachers an excuse to not care to do more than the minimum work.
Find an effective way to deal with this (political) problem in public schools and you can be elected State Superintendent of Education.