Well, who can possibly refute such a well-thought out rebuttal?
I've seen it time and again, Mach --if the parents aren't involved in the kids education, the kids won't learn. I've seen it in every parent-teacher meeting I've ever held -- the parents that show up are the ones whose kids are achieving. the parents of the troubled kids -- the ones you want to talk to -- never show unless you call them (and rarely even then).
And when you do see them, it's always the same story: "I send my kid to school to learn; if there's a problem, you fix it." No teacher can make a dent against that kind of apathy.
The response -- homeschooling -- is overkill, IMO, but at least it's a step in the right direction -- parents taking responsibility for their children's education. Why else is it so successful?
Because unless parents get involved, the teachers can only do so much.