Public Education - time for a hard look

Is our educational system preparing our children for greatness or failing them miserably?

I recently listened to a story on NPR regarding our state's public schools, retention/failure rates, graduation rates, etc.  During the story, our current budgetary and financial woes were brought up as reasons for some of our problems.  In particular, Charlotte-Meck schools were singled out because they are cutting hundreds (or was it thousands?) of teaching, assistant, and support staff positions.  Schools being closed and sold off.

I'm sure some of this is necessary, but at the same time I get really ticked off.  I've seen firsthand some of the ridiculous things that school systems spend money on.  Computer programs that help with reading scores that costs thousands of dollars per year to keep a license current.  My very first "teaching" position was as a ComputerReading lab monitor.  Not teacher.  Monitor.  All I did was load the program and make sure the kids sat in front of the computer.     I've also frequently seen consultants hired to come do workshops - not on teaching - but rather on how to teach your kids to "beat" the EOG test.  One principal I worked for spent thousands on workbooks that taught EOG test taking strategies to the kids via Overhead Sheets. 
The focus becomes on teaching to the test.  But then can you blame them? The teacher's salary and evaluations all hang on that test.  Nevermind that we are dealing with whatever problems the child brings from home, or from a poor performance in another teacher's class the year before, or two years before. 
This all disgusts me. 

It has been proven time and time again that the single most important factor in the classroom/school is the teacher.  Period.  Want better test scores and student achievement?  Hire more teachers and reduce your class teacher-student ratios.  Get rid of the ridiculous things that we spend money on to try and slap a band-aid on the problem.  Instead, we cutting teaching positions and cramming more kids in each classroom.  I can guarantee you that just as much time will be spent managing behavior as teaching. 

Administrators will tell you that they can't spend that money on teaching positions because its been "earmarked" by the state as other types of funds that have to be used for technology standards, remediation, or whatever.  I've heard it all before.  Just a bunch of excuses.  We are in a budget crisis, right?  Change the darn earmarks - or better yet, remove them altogether.  Allow the local governments and admins the power to allocate funds as they see fit. 

Remove the excuse.  Then demand results.