But there is just as much evidence that kids are a lot better educated today than they used to be. Most parents I know are amazed by how much the level of expectation has risen since we were school kids. So the important question is not why Johnny can't read, but why so many Americans choose to believe that our schools are failing. One reason is the joy of jeremiads like Mather's, those laments about society's ills that Puritan ministers loved to preach. Americans still revel in a good jeremiad.
Historians have a pretty good idea why such lamentations became, and remain, so popular.
The clergymen of Mather's day wanted a stable, predictable social structure. Their claim to authority depended on it. But the world was changing so fast that they couldn't control it. Since the ministers were most frightened about the uncontrollable future, they bemoaned the fate of the future generation and blamed the schools. The pace of change has not let up since 1690.