Just how far has the academic bar been lowered?

This is very true. We have a child in sixth grade in a strong private school but plan on sending him to public high school so he has access to AP courses and we can save the difference for college. He is in the highest math group at his school and takes a supplement course through JHU’s CTY program online. I’m glad we can do this for him, but I do feel badly for all of the students who don’t have access to resources like this or who need still need remediation from the time when schools were closed.