You are using sort of a broad brush for painting.
Yep. It’s on purpose. When you grab a canvas painting and want to put a new painting on it, the first thing you do us use a broad brush to paint the whole thing white, giving your new painting a fresh start.
Different times call for different paradigms. In an age where a country’s strength is in the size of its population, and there were no government handouts, we welcomed all comers with open arms. “Illegal immigration” was not a thing. And in a time when we needed an educated population to compete on the world stage, and books and education could be a challenge, we offered government financed education for the masses.
But we are in a different world now. Both needs have changed drastically. And the latter can be done easily and for free by any parent, while the public schools do it at a cost of five digits per year per student and, often, do a TERRIBLE job of teaching and a WORSE job of socializing.
Tax payer funded schooling needs to be eliminated.