The biggest problem today (and I suspect even when you and I were in school) is that education is in the shitter for a good segment of the population.

In theory, school should be teaching how to learn, which includes skills like where to go if you need help with something, critical thinking, how to use public resources, etc. To a large extent, most of this I learned in college, not in high school.

My middle/high school was more concerned on passing exams than in actual teaching. And, based on articles I read today, schools are more concerns about making sure "woke doesn't get taught" than in actually educating students.