The best and the brightest should be going to private schools, on scholarship if the family doesn't have the money.
The problem is scholarships are scarce. In some communities, they are nonexistent.
The parents of the best and brightest should be given vouchers so their kids can have true access to better education. For that matter, the parents of all kids should be given vouchers so their kids can have true access to better education.
The best and the brightest should be going to private schools, on scholarship if the family doesn't have the money.
Many of my brothers and sisters were among those best and brightest. Actually, all of them were. I was a good student, but I'm kind of the dumb one of the family:). We all received good educations (including the present time) and have done well in our chosen fields. My mother and father knew that THEY already controlled what type of education their sons and daughters received and what values they were taught.
My daughter was offered a full 4 year scholarship to an exclusive private school last year. She turned it down because of the lack of AP classes and the shallowness of the math, science and computer program. Admittedly, the foreign language program blew the public school out of the water, but in every other catagory, nope, the pubic school came in first.
And no, we are not lucky to live in a good school district, we moved here because of it and my husband commutes over 2 hours to work so that our kids are in an excellent school.