You state:

if in any way, as seems self-evident, you are making a case the sorry state of our education system is in any way based upon the fact there is still not enough money being spent

How is it evident? I clearly state:

Throwing money at the problem won't help

You ask:

In whose hands do you believe the primary responsibility for the education of our children rests? Their parents? Or the State?

I ask, Does the country, does society, have an interest in the education of its children?

The home has the most powerful influence on a child. Hence, my statement:

"Correlation with wealth/race is quite high."

How can you disagree? The children of richer people get better educations. That's a fact. Should society care? Should we care?

I think schools are one place where society can level the field a bit. But that won't happen under the current system. Teachers have to be better, smarter. They have to be accountable for outcomes. Today they are not.

I'll make a final point. I trace the decline in education to an act of Congress in 1975 that mandated disabled children need to be accommodated in mainstream classrooms. As time passed the mandate grew to include prohibitions against removing children who were behavior problems. The law is ridiculous. A child has to have a gun, or carry drugs to school to get a temporary suspension. Instead of uplifting the disabled, this law depresses the achievement of the everyone.

I know of one mainstream class where more than 50% of the children have IEPs. There is no way the class can achieve high academic success in that environment.