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Actually, the Marxist indoctrination centers funded by taxpayer money are at fault. The obscene amount of money being squandered on swimming pools, football teams, junior year in Europe in some tony Connecticut gold coast towns, and every form of entertainment known to man or beast at whatever expense produces very little but vacant headed students who think that NCLB tests are just sooooo unfair. After all, the kiddies have to put their time into Homecoming Weekend or the next prom. They can't be expected to actually give a rat's patoot about literature, language, actual history, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, biology (the in class or lab kind), chemistry, physics, etc., when there are important entertainments to attend to. Besides, if the diploma is made more or less automatic, the kiddies can go on to be edumakashun majors with a lifetime of cushy and overpaid jobs with obscene perks and pensions for accomplishing nothing much at all.

No child is prohibited from supplementing his/her education at the public library. Andrew Carnegie accomplished more for American education through "free" public libraries than the entire membership of the National Education Association.

Socialized medicine is a nightmare and so is socialized brainwashing posing as "education."

I read a fascinating article recently about how to tell if someone will or won't succeed in college. It had to do with not what they know after high school, but what they wanted to know - an intellectual curiosity if you would.

Now take that concept and expand on it with your comments. It matters little if your high school is in the rough part or the tony part of town - if you have no love for learning, then you will ultimately fail unless you develop that along the way. Conversely, those kids in rotten high schools are still surrounded by libraries - with internet - and therefore access to the great texts of the world. In fact, anyone can log on to a number of universities and learn the knowledge tied to a degree. No, a degree doesn't come in the mail, but the knowledge stays - and amazingly, it is free!

What just annoys the heck out of me are students that have so much given to them intellectually and materially, and all they want to do is play. Zero intellectual curiosity. You describe high schools that frankly don't exist in my county, but I don't doubt that they exist in richer communities. But all of that wealth doesn't go to creating a better person.
We have a nation of horses standing at the trough of knowledge and a scarily high percentage of them turn their heads and refuse to drink.

I don't see this as a public school/private school/home school phenomenon. This attitude cuts straight through all cultures, all sub-groups, all income catagories. However, since most kids are in public schools, it's very easy to point the blame there. And believe me, the schools should bear their share of the blame. But they don't stand alone, they have plenty of company