In case you had any doubt, the answer is yes, according to this teacher:
Are Schools Purposely Dumbing Down Our Kids? A Teacher Speaks Up
By Sonya Sasser
| December 18, 2017
A student with a 50 percent GPA can now get the same diploma as your A student. Doesn’t that seem crazy?
It used to be that a 70% GPA was passing, and a student could receive a high school diploma with that particular average. However, the standard has now been lowered further to 50%. At least this is the case in some public schools.
PolitiChicks recently spoke with public school teacher, Melanie Collette. ...
"... Finally, and one of my biggest problems is that many times, federal money follows the student. Property tax money doesn’t follow the student (if I understand it correctly), but the federal money does. And schools get money based on their enrollment. So, if we are cooking the books, for example, they can stay in school from year to year based on a 50% GPA rather than a 70% average, and there is money attached to that kid, the school is getting paid for the kid being there, that seems to be a fundamental problem.â€
Read the entire article at PolitiChicks
