I'm not so sure that I agree. There are a number of schools that have cropped up in different cities that don't have huge budgets and the newest "shiny things", but the kids are learning. In the early part of the 20th century, there was an all black school near Washington, D.C. (when segregation was still in effect) called Dunbar High School. The graduates of Dunbar High School were on par with kids who graduatred from the best private schools in the country. In fact, the Dunbar graduates were so well educated that they were given automatic entree to Harvard if they could afford the tuition.
A number of revealing studies have shown that education standards began to decline at around that period of time and they accelerated the decline into oblivion by the last quarter of the twentieth century.
At one time, American public school educated kids led most categories of education by grade level around the world. Today, not so much. Today, unions, adminstrators and the government have united to create a "school" system whose products are dumber than when they first started their "education".
I didn't blame the kids for being dumb, that was just a statement of fact. I do blame the adults who tolerate it and rationalize it and refuse to demand better of their Board of Education. They know what theswe kids are up against when they graduate and they won't be up to the task.
Depends on what "it" is!
By "it" I meant "American education as a whole." You cite many fine individual examples, and indeed, "good education" is certainly possible throughout America.
My point is that there has ALWAYS been a wide distribution of good and bad extremes.
On a percentage basis, there have to be millions of dolts in America for Jay to prey on for ratings.
But at the same time, even with their leftist leanings, there's no doubt that the finest higher learning insitutions in the world still reside in the USA.
And, they are PACKED.
At the same time, there a inner-city high schools that provide little more than daily detention.