I am American and since it's been mumble mumble years since the public school system, I'm sure the situation is changed. I grew up in a factory town and they did a pretty good job teaching the basics of English, mathematics, and science. Going to college was a bit of a shock but that's a well-known problem.

Nowadays, it is incredibly variable because school systems are funded at the local level, most the curricula is decided at the local level so you can go from a very well-funded high-quality teacher school like the Newton, Wellesley, and Weston high schools to the low income areas out West where the public school system has been outsourced to Christian schools.

I also think the public school system is a bedrock of a democratic society if the curriculum is uniform and covers critical thinking, history, literature, and sciences without flinching. I feel like we need to draw a line in the sand and say what someone needs to know to be a citizen of this country. The problem is, there are lots of different opinions where that line should go ranging from the religious and racist to the equally dogmatic far left.