You are right of course it is a beautiful country full of many brilliant, energetic and generous people. We shouldn't conflate the system with the people. You don't blame the student for not knowing what the teacher never taught them.
The returns on investing massively in education seem so obvious and the costs of not investing so massive.
Also, I like to take my kids down to the riverside park in Windsor, just across from Detroit, and show them what will happen if they don't stay in school and why a little bit of socialism can be a good thing.