its a hugh problem
A few weeks into my first week of classes, one of my students complained that I gave her "bad" grades and her ninth grade English teacher gave her grades in the nineties. Curious, I asked her to bring in a few recently graded papers. The first one I looked at had a huge star on the top right next to "98." As I went through it, not only did I find at least 25 gramatical errors, but the essay was as incoherent as an MTV video - absolutely no logic, organization, etc.
It was quite upsetting to realize that many teachers are glossing over their students papers. They are too busy to take the time to do a good job.
When is America going to realize that we need to teach our students, not babysit them?