I believe this is the main problem, for sure. And another reason I think it's stupid to just throw money at it. Money isn't the problem.Every teacher and coach I've spoken with in the last 20 years has complained about lack of parenting being the number one problem in schools today. That, coupled with the inability to enforce basic civilized behavior makes teaching extremely challenging.
That said, the schools are making it really hard for the parent that wants to dig in on school work with a kid. No books. Assignments in math where they want problems solved by drawing butterflies, literally, rather than how we knew it. You might know multiplication, but do you know this proscribed method of multiplication? Get a look at it in the book? Nope.
However, I would hate to see just how bad things would be if these new and improved teaching methods hadn't been implemented. I mean, we're almost at the bottom now, can you imagine how bad it would be without the new way of learning? Scary.