Writing long texts for school is stupid and it is a skill that is in practice purely developed in order to do homework. I am not surprised it immediately declines as soon as the necessity is removed.
People write a lot of stuff that is not for homework. Maybe they should make a measurement of something else they write. I would even say that writing for homework is a special skill in bullshitting that does not (cannot) exist in other forms of writing.
> ...is a skill that is in practice purely developed in order to do homework.
I would argue that it helps kids learn how to organize and formulate coherent thoughts and communicate with others. I'm sure it helps them do homework, too.