I think that kids should know the basics, a little reading, the alphabet, numbers, name, address, etc. However with the number of spawning drug addicts, alcoholics, and general idiots this is just asking too much of parents. I mean, come on, they brought these kids into the world, their jobs done.
DD went to school several years with a little boy that couldn't read even in the third grade. His shoes were falling apart, his clothing filthy, his skin filthy. Oh, he had his ears pierced, and he had his hair dyed pink, purple, green or whatever color happened into his parents drugged up minds but soap and water never touched this boy. I played a game one day where we talked about differences between people and how silly prejudices were. I had all the kids take off their shoes and stand on a piece of paper so that I could draw around their feet. We then looked at the different shaped feet and talked about how silly it would be to not like someone because their feet were bigger, smaller or shaped differently than our own. Quite an elaborate ruse to get his foot size so that a pair of new tennis shoes could be left with his teacher for him. No, parents that won't provide a cheap box of crayons or a couple of pencils aren't going to worry about whether or not their kid knows the alphabet.