The Carolinas have pretty poor education. My gf was a teacher there and just moved back to NJ. I was able to sit in on their virtual classes in both states. It’s night and day difference. Places like Florida, Missouri, the South, etc. Ya, it’s not good at all.
A lot of it has to do with parenting. I mean, take a look around. We have adults that believe wild conspiracy theories and can’t tell real news from fake. They don’t even teach Civics anymore. We have 3 generations now that really have no idea how anything works in this country.
Look at what our “elder” poster pastes here each day. Poor guy is all twisted around. He believes an election was “stolen” from him. He actually knows better. He’s just trying to trick young people and he’s addicted to polarizing fake news.
I was actually the last class to have “Civics” in elementary school. So, if you’re younger than 45, you were a victim of Reagan’s “dumbing down of America.” That happened in his term. Civics was merged with Social Studies and didn’t get very much attention.
You should look up “A Nation at Risk.”