From an interview on EducationViews.org, One answer in particular is crucial, I think, for figuring out where we go next:

Michael F. Shaughnessy: Now, details----there are a lot of different theories about what is wrong with education. Your take ?

Bruce Price: I believe that most of the administrative, financial and cultural issues usually discussed are secondary. The big problems are not on the surface, they’re down in what might be called education’s intellectual machinery. That’s where you find the theories and methods that the professors of education have concocted. Computer programmers coined the phrase “garbage in, garbage out,” which pretty well describes our dilemma. Virtually every important method used in the public schools is defective. Whole Word makes children illiterate. Reform Math keeps children from mastering and appreciating mathematics. Constructivism is a slow inefficient way to teach anything. I could take you through the whole range of counterproductive theories and methods. They should be eliminated. (Simply ask the 50 best private schools what they are doing, and copy that. You’ll be in much better shape.)

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ADDENDUM QED: if kids aren’t learning to read and do arithmetic in a timely way, then all the endless discussions we hear are just a joke.

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From: "An Interview with Bruce D. Price: Some Thoughts on Bill Gates, Education and Influence"

http://educationviews.org/an-interview-with-bruce-d-price-some-thou...

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