(asbestos suit on) I blame No Child Left Behind, a good idea that had horrendous unintended consequences. The extreme example of this is the Georgia cheating scandal, where the teachers actually altered the answers on standardized tests.

As far as math instruction goes, IMO there is no substitute for the practice/drills that used to be done in elementary school. Math is at the root of all scientific disciplines, as well as accounting and economics. Did you know that compound interest calculation is actually what is called a "differential equation", which is quite advanced math?

(asbestos suit retired.)