Standards Are Plummeting

The University of North Carolina, yes, MJ's school, has decided that it's students no longer need to know how to swim in order to graduate. Another standard falls in the educational world. This will be the last year that students have to pass a basic swim test (50 yd. swim and 5 minutes floating) in order to get a diploma in Chapel Hill. The university feels that there are much more available fitness outlets for their graduates than swimming.
Somewhere near sixty years ago, almost every institution of higher learning required students to pass a basic swimming test in order to graduate...something about being able to save one's own life when toppling from a yacht. Anyway, as recently as 1977, 42% of all universities in America STILL required students to be able to swim in order to graduate; by the time the early 80s were ushered in, that figure was a mere 8%...sad. Now, except for the hallowed halls of places like Notre Dame (where they no longer require students to take the test in the buff, a practice which was halted by the inclusion of women to the campus), MIT, Cornell, Columbia and Swarthmore (as well as all the service academies), this test of determination has gone the way of, say, the high school graduation test in Wisconsin...and other states as well.
In fact, California is in the process of suffering through a lawsuit which challenges their gradution test as unfair to poor students and students in large schools. apparently, such students get poor teachers. This was supposed to be the first graduating class in California which was required to pass a test to graduate. Litigation will, no doubt, hold up many a graduation party there!
At least Governor Jeb Bush and the politicos in Florida give lip service to standards by requiring high school student to declare a major. Their idea is that it will allow students to focus more on a career choice (at 13) while avoiding things they don't want to take. Core areas like math, English, science and social studies would still be required, though. You can just hear the anguished cries of students who wanted to major in shop so they would not have to take all the other stuff.
Come to think of it, I was required to take an introduction to music class in college which met the same day the school newspaper was published. At least part of that time was then spent somewhat profitably. The professor finally got so irritated at the rustling of the pages that he turned the lights off in the auditorium, leaving only the stage illuminated. However, he proceeded to fall off the stage and break a leg. I knew there was some kind of commotion but had to wait a couple of days to read about it in the next edition of the school paper.
All of this except the inane part about my college music class leads to this question: can standards get any lower? What will get dropped next? Classes on Friday?