fortunately, our kids had a fantastic P.S. system and we took advantage of it...teachers, admins and school board are outstanding...good neighbor and friend of mine was SB President for several years. When leadership is excellent...and funds are available...truly excellent students come out of that system...we've witnessed it first hand.
Also, I grew up in NYC, where the Schools were also well managed...outstanding students got recognized and were given the resources needed to eventually get into the very best colleges in the nation. While I didn't go through that system, the NY Regents program/exams have been well constructed to ensure quality output...no way a "Mish-Mash" of poorly supervised Charter Schools with their own agendas is going to do better...for the students...and our nation.