My son lives in Katy. Homeschools his 2 boys, and wouldn't think of sending them to school.Correct and a good number don't want to be around them after school either.
I work at an elementary school in a low income "suberb" of Houston. We had more kids missing 40 days or more the past 2 years than ever before. Before the shut down we had a couple of problem kids, but nothing like now. A good number of our parents don't require their children to do homework or read for even a little bit each night. So all of the life lessons which should be learned at home, aren't being taught. So the cycle repeats, and grows, because that one low income family is producing 3 or 4 kids who are going to be in the same situation or worse.
Until education is, once again, the focus for our young people, we are going to continue to underperform vs the rest of the world. The best and the brightest aren't coming from the US anymore, they are coming from countries and areas where there is parental involvement and where there is an emphasis on education.
One of the schools in Nebraska had 11th grade proficiency scores of:
Math 19% Science 22% English 27%. YET, the graduation rate was 87.27%.
Hell, if they had 4 other classes, basket weaving, counting to 100, PE, and study hall and scored 100% on all 4 classes, they still only average 66%, which in my day, was an F or a 5.
In addition, they have no tardy policy in place. If a kid shows up in class at 10:00 and decides to just walk out of the building for the day and 10:15, he/she is not considered tardy or absent. Still gets a passing grade in the class.
As a country we've graduated to the point of many schools not even needing a SAT or ACT score to quality for a 4 year college. I think the problem is so multi-faceted, it could take a decade to restore the educational system to being average.
Some of my best friends are teachers, active and retired both. As you, and perhaps your daughters well know, this environment has been a demoralizer among teachers. The system in place, has turned a job they loved, into a job they want to leave in droves.
Teachers bust their ***, give everything within their power to teach their students, and the idea of getting even minimal parental support for large percentage undermines their efforts.
I still think having kids in your class and having you teach them, in the first quarter, the components needed to build a winning football team. 2nd quarter, how to build a dynamic offensive team. 3rd quarter, how to build an aggressive, efficient tackling defensive unit. 4th quarter, how do these concepts apply in stepping out into the real world after high school.
Kids would learn a helluva lot more than a Science class or Algebra, or a History class many of them are bored to death with. Go team go!!