I doubt it. Kids leave elementary school today knowing more programming languages than college graduates did in 2010.

If you want actual data, compare SAT scores or something. I'm willing to bet that by any metric, school was lax back then.

If anything, if that was actually true, it'd be a colossal indictment of prior generations of administrators and leaders demolishing the quality of education for those who followed. So for GP's sake, I hope they're actually wrong about math skills being weaker among the current gen.

SAT scores have a trend of being inflated over time because they are dropping.

There is no way the average college bound student from the 70’s doesn’t score higher on every standard subject than a contemporary one.

I don't think so, but ok, look at college acceptance rates then. Pick some semi-top one like UCLA https://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/trends/university-of-c...

UCLA being flooded with applications doesn’t mean anything in this context

Every high-end school getting lots of applications does mean more students are seriously trying for college, and yes, the same student in 1975 would have a harder time being admitted to UCLA today even if it's just because they're flooded.

You could also look at college graduation rates. https://educationdata.org/number-of-college-graduates What trend shows that 1970s kids were better educated or harder working?