The American k -12 does NOT open doors to anybody, forget being perfect. The system is a shame and the most expensive in a world. K - 12 is filled with busy work that aim at one thing - to kill the analytical skills. The notion that the real “stuff” can start only in HS is equivalent of being “too little too late”. And it does not have to be 13 years long either, 10 years of efficient system is plenty.
I will be hated for what I am saying, so be it. I am not smart enough to come up with it, somebody else said it: “The further society drifts from the truth, the more it hates those who say it”. If keeping head in sand and paying huge money for it is OK (well, “not perfect”, but OK), then have it. Just keep in mind that those kids who do get ahead, many of them receive help outside of k - 12. More so if the parents were educated abroad (immigrants), they can bring the education of their kids to higher level and not much is needed for it, few minutes here and there, sometime in a car or during other activity. Kids are like sponges, they will absorb and more so if they easily see that it gives them advantage in classroom. Why certain groups are way overrepresented in the very selective places, from HSs to Med. School? They are not the richest! Maybe answering this question will lead to some realizations.
I agree wholeheartedly with one thing - our kids are just average. And what is wrong with it? College degree does not require anybody to be a genius, MD diploma neither. Hard work overcoming the shortcomings of the American k -12 with the great family support that is all that is needed. High IQ is not one of the requirements.