Been teaching seven years now, have gotten three kids through school, one more finishing her junior year now, my wife has taught for 20 years in 3 states, and all that has shown me that the school system is failing huge portions of our children miserably. Without going on too much of a rant, there's a pie chart of who is at fault when kids fail. It's divided between the schools, the parents, and the culture the kids are in. In recent years, the school's slice has gotten bigger in general. Not holding students back when they can't work up to grade level, cow towing to ridiculous levels of accommodations, lack of disciplinary action, shoving sped kids out in regular classes who really need to be separated for everyone's best interests, and dozens of other reasons. Parents and society still do their damage (or occasionally help) but the school system's responsibility keeps growing.