"Why is public education such a miserable failure?"
In a nutshell, because it is meant to be. As Charlotte Iserbyt has chronicled, it's a "deliberate dumbing down." Look her up on google. She knows what she's talking about.
Well, it is true, you know, that Catholic schools do not have to educate all who come to its doors.
Having said that, the same creeps who lurk at the NEA and DOE are at the Catholic Education Assn. and (sometimes)the dioceses. So the fact that there are standards at all is testimony to the goodness of those who want to educate rather than indoctrinate and follow fads.
p.s. the fact that there's less money is a real plus too. Education is not what's expensive--it's indoctrination which is.
Of course it is true that Catholic schools do not have to educate all who come to their doors. Neither do Baptist,Episcopalian, Jewish, or non-denominational private schools. I'm certainly aware that public schools must admit all- my beef with them (other than indoctrination and revisionism) is that they mollycoddle the lazy and reinforce an entitlement mentality. They eschew accountability/responsibility, and do not even attempt to give a meaningful education. I know many public school teachers, and I'm not slamming them- it's the education bureaucracy and the NEA that are running things into the ground. I only hope the NEA/DOE types you claim lurk at Catholic schools never gain a foothold. I strongly feel that without alternatives to publik edukasun, our nation would be a banana republic.