Matt Yglesias posts a chart from the Economic Report of the President showing that improvements in educational attainment have slowed for children born after 1970 and stagnated for those born after 1990.
The most obvious explanation for this change: immigration. Unlike Canada and Australia, which emphasize highly skilled migrants, U.S. immigration policy is skewed in favor of the very low-skilled. Unsurprisingly, the children of the low-skilled do poorly in school. More surprisingly: so do the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
I’m not saying this is an unfixable problem. With enough money and time, you can fix anything. The question is: Why choose this particular problem when you don’t have to – and when it distracts from so many other problems over which we have no choice?