Apropos of nothing...

There were two candidates in an election. Total of 2.8 million votes were cast. Candidate I earned 28,000 more votes than Candidate II. All votes were either for Candidate I or Candidate II. What percentage of the total votes did Candidate I earn?

The Korean volunteers as an SAT tutor for a 10th grader who gets As and Bs. (The Korean reviews his students' grade sheets himself.) In the 30 minutes that the Korean and the student spent on the question above, the student --

- could not understand that Candidate I earned 14,000 more votes than 50 percent.
- did not know how many zeroes there were in 2.8 million.
- could not subtract 28,000 from 2.8 million without a calculator.
- could not convert "Candidate I earned 28,000 more votes than Candidate II" to "x = y + 28,000".
- could not solve for x and y with the two equations "x + y = 2,800,000" and "x = y + 28,000".
- could not divide 2,772,000 by two without a calculator.

Again, the Korean's 10th grader student gets As and Bs. An average 5th grader in Korea could solve this problem. Math education in New York City public school system is criminal.