Homework for pre-k

My children have home work and I am expected to help them with it. I want to be a good parent but I was raised where homework was my problem as a child I would get help if I asked but generally it was my concern. Now I receive a message along side of the children's school work saying that I have to help. I have heard similar stories from other parents as well.
  I think there is something intrinsically wrong with our education system that the teacher does not have enough time during the day to complete the lessons. I believe that now schools serves the purpose of preparing us for the modern day work force more than any actual thinking education. That said I believe that teachers have little or no problem with homework since as part of their job they are required to work constantly on their job. Grading papers at home and coming up with lesson plans and the various sundry work that goes into be a teacher. I however disagree with this model and I always have. I would like to point out that every person that is required to take work home as an adult resents it. No one likes to work for free and I think that homework in school is part of the incremental erosion of our personal time that adds to the stress and stupidity of society. People need to enjoy learning and not have it forced on them.
 Now I have no problem helping my children out with their home work but I am more than a little bothered that as parent I not only am constantly asked for money and time from the school but now I am required to do my children's homework? When exactly did children stop having to accept responsibility for themselves? I personally intend to make my children do their own homework but I also expect my children to accept responsibility for their own homework. I think we need to go back to a time where children could fail and children learned their limits. Not everyone is a rocket scientist and that's ok. But this environment where everyone is a winner is ultimately making us all losers.