I am not surprised. I have come across both. Some are very well educated coming from top institutions who could be earning much more in private industry, but I have also met those who come from the bottom of the barrel whose grammar and vocabulary is deficient (liberry, expresso, etc) and who were not competent in basic geometry. In summary, it's a very mixed bag. Some are great and some really suck and should not be in education at all. Good CoL adjustment may help to weed out non-hackers in Ed.