Can I challenge this assumption?
1) Maybe, these schools have merely delayed their success. What would these young people have accomplished if they ( at a young age) had simply attended a lower ranked college or community college and then gone one to earn a Ph.D or started in the working world 4 years earlier?
2) Maybe, some ( or most) of these young people were successful in spite of their government education. What would these young people have accomplished if they had been homeschooled or tutored? Do you think that resourceful and determined immigrant parents, who valued education, would not have found those in their families and communities who could have tutored their children?
3) Finally, how much is actually learned in a classroom as compared to that which is learned at home due to studying the textbook, working the problems doing the assignments, and attending study clubs? It isn't known because these studies have **never** been done. We spend more on K-12 schooling each year ( federal, state, and local) than we do on the military, yet it is unknown if government schooling works or teaches anything. It is entirely possible that the only thing government brick and mortar schools do is send home a very expensive curriculum for the child to follow in the home.
I ask these questions because my homeschoolers entered community college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. Two finished B.S. degrees in mathematics by the age of 18. The oldest of these earned a masters in mathematics by the age of 20. The oldest homeschooler earned a masters in accounting at the typical age but was also an internationally and nationally ranked athlete and traveled the world representing the U.S.
If I might ask, what is the one with a Master’s in math doing now?
Home schooling is a great option for much of the country, but really not for these kids from poor immigrant families, many of which are working crazy hours in low-wage jobs and businesses to support their kids in crowded conditions.