failures in the US educational system

I have grown very fond of the local transit in my SE corner of Pennsylvania where it connects with Delaware. Usually within a few minutes of its published schedule it gets me in and out of Philadelphia every day, and I love the fact that we see real conductors: they've almost ceased to exist on many British and Irish trains, and they do make the train feel so much safer. However, turning up at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, I suffered a severe shock. After learning that the train to Thorndale PA departed at 1705 from platform 4, I walked towards the platforms, which you have to climb up to. First you encounter platform 1, then platform 2 -- am I boring you? -- and then ... platform 5. I turned round, wondering if I'd strolled into a Harry Potter movie, but no, behind me was platform 2. So I wandered on a bit to discover platform 6 and THEN ... platform 3 followed by platform 4.

I have to say I found this disturbing. They do say that numeracy and literacy are in steep decline, and as a university lecturer, I cannot deny it, but this?