>Interesting sociological question: why is this not widely known
>in our society? Why is the opposing position--educational
>standards and abilities are decreasing over time--so popular, even
>though data clearly contradict the claim?
Bill Resnick, who does (or at least used to do) a show on KBOO in Portland, told me a few years ago that he was working on a book for Verso whose argument was that things are actually a lot better than leftist usually say. Two examples he gave were rising educational attainment and more humane gender and family relations. He said that the right likes to peddle the declining school standards argument as part of their war on public education, and evidently it's working. Dunno what ever happened with the book; it sounded like an interesting idea.
Doug