My wife works with undergraduate students at a major university every single day and she is a first hand witness to the poor quality of public education nationwide. The students that she encounters are often woefully unprepared for a college education-they have a poor grasp of written English, have low reading comprehension and their grasp of basic mathematical skills is better left unexplored. These students ARE NOT the bottom of the barrel either-the admission system filters most of them out. Its a very sad state of affairs.
Our children will be attending private school-even though I don't agree with their religion (most private schools here are Catholic) I can't argue with their results. My wife left her private high school with English, math and science skills that rival most college graduates.