"You seem convinced, as do many on these boards do, that simply moving dough into education is the answer"

I don't believe that. We spend more on education than most, maybe all other countries already. I think the problems are cultural. More successful countries that spend less seem to have children that realize early that education is important and worth pursuing. Other countries are also less diverse in general than ours.

I do think that college should be free for anyone capable of doing the work. If it was, some of our students might put more effort into HS. If you know HS is the end of your educational road, that would seem to me to be somewhat discouraging, especially when you know less capable but more financially able students will continue to progress.