This would be funny if it weren't so sad:

Life Imitates 'The Simpsons'
From "Whacking Day," an episode of "The Simpsons," which first aired April 29, 1993:

Principal Skinner: So, what's the word down at One School Board Plaza?

Superintendent Chalmers: We're dropping the geography requirement. The children weren't testing well. It's proving to be an embarrassment.

Skinner: Very good. Back to the three R's.

Chalmers: Two R's, come October.

From the Seattle Times, March 26, 2007:

State lawmakers appear on the verge of dumping the math and science sections of the 10th-grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), and replacing them with a very different kind of test.

The idea is to do something about the fact that so few students pass the math and science sections.