You are the pro in the field.
I only have my personal experiences of how the california school system failed my children. And the idaho school system failed my gfs children.
Alaskas Anchorage Burrow system. As well as their state university system were pretty darn good. Reminded me of Californias ststem in the 70's.
Affordable college tuition. Grade school - HS very focused on literacy in the basics. There wasnt much spent on extras. Although. They had great facilities. brick buildings, funded libraries, large theaters with good sound/ seating. All paid for by the oil boom. When I moved to alaska. California schools were going broke. It showed. Overcrowding, no money to build new schools. Mandated bilingual education. No money to hire additional teachers.

Perhaps- Montana avoided any cash crunches.
Alaska now is facing similar problems that cali did in the 80's. Funding dried up along with the oil flow slowing. In Cali- it was property tax reform that drained school budgets.

Well. Since im wrong about schools. You tell me why americas education rank in the world has fallen from top 5 in our school days to what is it now?
Business insiders 2018 report ranked the US 38th in math. 24th in science.
The pew report ranks the us on the whole at 13.
The IMD ranks the us #12.
Nccs ranks usa 33 out of 44 most advanced economies.

Then theres this*
Ranks the usa "system" #1 in the world.
But points out it isnt producing parallel results.

* https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/education-rankings-by-country

The proofs in the pudding friend.
The places ive lived since leaving alaska? Thats nearly 20 years now spread between Washington, oregon, Idaho & Nevada.
The residents are largely extremely ignorant on so very many topics. Their children couldnt be dumber if they were lobotomized.
Maybe its home schooling, eh?

I still agree with Vivek.
American education is producing mediocrity.
I think the causes are 2 fold.
Bad parenting. And an education system that spends whatever % of its resources trying to be a surrogate parent. No matter what your success rate. When a parent doesnt care. More times than not. Neither does the kid.
Sadly but commendably. Wyo, you state your success in this venue. Its commendable that you try. Even more commendable your having/had success. But. One problem. Who is the parent when theyre not on campus?