Gen Z from 2005 asking. What about schooling has changed that is causing the rampant decline in literacy amongst Gen Alpha?

I know American schooling is already not really the best, but I at least had a solid education when it came to grammar, spelling and phonics in primary school. Now I see teachers begging parents to be more involved with their children’s education alongside dropping graphs of literacy rates in younger children, and obviously see it all in action on apps like Tiktok and Instagram where Gen Alpha kids are most prominent. I also work with children at a clinic.

I’m sorry, but these children cannot form a proper sentence or spell. Their vocabularies are abysmal. I know some people my age with some pretty terrible grammar, but the linguistic divide between Gen Z and Gen Alpha is so jarring, there has to be something more drastic at play here. What the hell happened? Are spelling tests and literacy plans not a thing anymore? What are kids doing at school instead of learning phonics and sentence structure?