The problem is they have several conflicting goals and education is only one of them. Secondary schools teach whatever their local government or state wants.

Historically, the US copied Prussian Frederick the Great's School system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_education_system#Unit....

Meanwhile the universities saw themselves as research institutions. They view teaching as a pipeline to produce future researchers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_university

When the states met and decided what high schools teach, they created Common Core which was highly controversial. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core#Reception_and_crit...

Now there are things like UT Austin's online high school where they teach everything like Khan Academy. Again they are teaching to meet whatever standard the state told them to meet. https://highschool.utexas.edu/hs_courses

Here's my experience. I went to a majority black school my freshman year and was initially placed into core classes. These classes were filled with clowns and I immediately demanded assessment testing to assess out. Once I was in AP classes, shit got real and I definitely felt like I got what I put in: I could have learned a lot but chose to do the minimum. I also felt like my fundamentals were so flawed that they had to grade me on a curve in order to not fail me. Of course this did me a disservice but I did put in a little effort.

Anyway, the next year I transferred to a white school and they placed me in core classes again. Difference was that in the white school, these kids were chill so I was fine doing the bare minimum. In this environment, the bar was set so low now, it was easy to ace anything. I did take some AP classes that were challenging.

So my hot take is that school is hard for those looking for a challenge and willing to advocate for themselves. I chose to take assessment tests. I went into the offices to talk to department heads. I never once told my parents this or anyone really. I just knew I wasn't personable enough to survive a year of "looking ass" jokes.

Definitely not budget cuts. School budgets have surprisingly little to do with educational outcomes. See Abbott districts in New Jersey for one of the starkest examples of this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott_district

Despite having better per-pupil funding than the wealthiest districts in the state (thanks to a court order mandating increased funding) student performance has stayed the same and even worsened in these districts.

The single biggest determiners of school performance seems to be the level of parental involvement and the average IQ of the students. Well those, plus selection effects to bump up numbers: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/why-selection-bias-is-t...