Seattle-area parent here. I grew up in near a small city in the midwest, but even there we had 3 levels of classes for nearly every subject, and a gifted program. It was awesome. My classmates were all smart and hard-working, and I entered college already having tested out of nearly 2 years of general education requirements. Public schools are the way to go, or so I thought.
Having seen what the Seattle public school system has become, I'm planning to send my kids to private school. Most of my (largely Asian) friends here will do the same. As usual, people with the means to do so will pay to avoid these problems, but the lower/middle class suffers the consequences.
In the Seattle school district, this is certainly not a cost cutting measure. It's an equity measure.
> The kids who want to excel generally will
That's true. Even though there's a complete lack of interest in them by the public schools, at least those schools don't make an effort to block them.