You conclude (or seem to?) that education as a whole is worse than it was before. I don't think I agree with that, but of course it depends on what your priorities in education are.

A college degree as a generic item: to some extent, yes. No doubt, people with only a HS diploma 1 or 2 generations ago, had a better knowledge of some topics than someone with a degree from a second-class college now. But that college degree, second-class or not, does give its holder specialized knowledge in a given field and opens up career possibilities that wouldn't have been there for just a HS diploma - regardless of the holder's wider general knowledge. I realize that won't apply equally in all fields obviously, but unless we're talking about borderline fraudulent cases (Trump University comes to mind), getting a degree does make a real difference.

Clearly education is becoming more goal-oriented and career-oriented, and the old ideals of what ought to be general knowledge are weakening. But then, society is changing - education should change along with it. As I mentioned to Cannoli, at heart I sympathize with you both in regretting the decline specifically in historical and geographical and grammatical knowledge, because I too have a keen interest in all of those - but I'm trying to distinguish between my personal preferences, and what the preferences of society as a whole should be. The old ideals are in a sense a luxury, to be maintained if possible but not at the expense of things more directly related to the future career.

Now if you tell me that you think education outcomes are growing worse in every aspect, even in preparing for careers, well, you'd know better than I.