Real reason for the fall of US education (skip to the end for the TL;DR)

1. Decades of decimation of proper education funding
2. Refusal to compensate teachers fairly
3. Refusal to provide adequate resources to schools fairly
4. Hyper-focus on sports over education
5. Total politicization of material reality by the far-right
6. The rich lobbying to defund public schools and fund private Christian schools
7. Total destabilization of working class households (ex: parents bow having to prioritize working over involvement in their children’s development)
8. Total destruction of the job market
9. Pollution causing genuine cognitive development problems
10. Insurmountable cost of higher education
11. The persistent threat of mass shootings at schools

TL;DR: late-stage capitalism, baby!