“Do you know why your grade was so high,” he said, looking at me calmly. “You graduated from high school ten years before most who took this exam, and your education was that much better.” And that was 25 years ago.

I was educated during the cold war, when a highly educated populace was thought necessary to counter the threat from the communist competition. After the rebellion of the Sixties, including within the armed forces during the Vietnam War, it became clear to the powers that be what the consequences of that education would be. And, of course, since they were also shipping industry to foreign shores, and buying foreign talent, fewer educated Americans were needed.

Since that time, the dumbing down of America was policy. Money once used for education and other social need was shifted to corporate subsidies, as Chomsky and others pointed out some time ago. They should call it the “Most Children Left Behind” policy.