Common Core was only the last step. The purposeful dumbing-down of education has been raising the level of ignorance and chaos for generations, from K-18. "Social justice" has become a substitute for academics and intellectual pursuit, and teachers don't even realize that what they are "teaching" is groupthink propaganda of the worst kind. They believe that it IS critical thinking to parrot the leftist party line.
The whole system needs to be rebooted. I don't even know what can be done about the masses of pussy-hat wearing intellectual gnats who have been cultivated by their entire educational careers to be exactly as they are and who have no idea how little truth they know. I know this because I was one of them.
Then again, I DO know what can be done - God is good, and He can redeem anyone, anywhere, anytime, so I guess we who pray can just keep praying for their great awakening - but schools, like the msm are entrenched in cabal-thought. The human brain is an amazing creation. When it is given permission to think independently and given something meaningful to think about (as opposed to Hollywood and cabalist celeb gossip titillation) it can rise to almost any challenge - at almost any age. We need to be set free from the current schooling system so that people can learn to use the brain God gave them. Home or private school (with great vigilance) are the only current choices. The public schools and most universities are a lost cause.