No, it didn't escape them...they are not that stupid.
Just referring to it (the obvious) would bring instant charges of racism, classism, etc.
There is an excellent story a few items down from this on how Indian and Asian students are excelling in school; while America uses schools to coodle Mexicans and Blacks.
To paraphrase: 'America staggers towards something called diversity, like a bum will drag himself to a bottle of cheap booze on the sidewalk'. And we have the other gem; Chinese and Indian schools don't have time for loosers, they focus on the hard working, smart kids. America places it's emphasis on making life easier on the loosers, thus making the successful kids little more than the elite among the loosers.