There are a number of problems, none of which is insurmountable. Collectively, however, they constitute quite a juggernaut.
There are many handicaps a child can have. Among the worst is having idiots for parents. The first important responsibility a parent has with regard to his children's educations is to instill in them the fact that their educations are their own responsibilities. This is because learning only occurs in one place - and it's not a classroom, but between the ears of the student. Education is not the same thing as schooling.
We can sit around and complain or we can do something. I spend a very large amount of my "free time" in educating my own kids past the deficiencies of their public schooling. I also volunteer at a local high school, mentoring teachers in programming, tutoring students (physics, algebra, but mostly geometry), judging science contests, what have you. If they needed the toilets cleaned, I'd be happy to do that too. Whatever they need, I'm there.
But I don't think this is what most people want to do. I sense that most people want good education the way couch-potatoes want a million dollars - if it just happens to fall into their laps, they're elated, but they aren't willing to work for it. On the other end, we have people who are only interested in "doing something" if they can get credit for it somehow or if they can do something "really cool" like "helping" some kid win a science fair. To me, one of the coolest things is taking a kid who is making straight Ds and over the course of a semester getting their grade up to a B - or having a kid who has always made straight Fs break down crying during a session and say, "oh my god! oh my god! I understand it! I REALLY understand it!"
For the life of me I don't understand why in an area like where I live (northern va) the schools are pushing tutors away. It shouldn't be a struggle here to find people who know enough to be useful. Almost anyone can do something - it doesn't have to be perfect.
I recall a science day at my kids' elementary school in which some parents manned a number of the booths. Some of the parents really understood the thing they were demonstrating, while others were obviously lost. It's a little depressing that the parents don't understand some elementary aspect of science, but on the whole it's a great thing that they're actually putting out the effort. Often that's all it takes - for kids to SEE that their parents actually think a thing is important.
Feynman wrote in one of his books that his dad used to take him for walks and explain some scientific facts to him - how things work, so to speak. Later, he discovered that some of his dad's explanations were really off, but it was the fact that he actually nurtured that interest, got him thinking about what he was doing that got little Richard excited. Neither parents nor teachers have to be perfect - but they can do SOMETHING. The problem I see is that many parents don't even do the parent thing very well - like make sure their kids do their homework.
We as a society are loosing perspective - our economic well-being depends on our producing people who can understand science and practice it. Nowadays even some of science's staunchest promoters don't actually understand it very well. It's no wonder there's a creationist revival.
The US is not the only country to have these problems though. It's beginning to strike Britain. Chem Engineering is an important industry there and they now have a shortfall of people to fill the bill - they actually need to import chemical engineers to keep their factories running. Turns out there are more people interested in psychology and other proto-sciences than in the hard sciences. Chemical Engineering is considered "dirty." I'm not sure what good they think "Environmental Science" would be without chemical engineering - it's not about facts, but perceptions at that point.
