This part requires some proof. Have the standards lowered. Have scores lowered in a way that can be traced through time AND is not related to a larger portion of the population receiving education?
Overall looking at the very top kids in the education system, I'd put them to bat against those of yester-year any day. I'd also put the bottom percentile kids up against the uneducated of yesteryear.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside