I definitely agree that our school system is screwed at the moment, but I think it's more society itself at fault than the schools...in many cases anyway.
I think that the education system actually plays a huge role in why society is like this. It's a vicious downward cycle that must be fixed. Now.

Also, a good school system doesn't necessarily need to be difficult either. There is no need for a large workload, or anything like that. What needs to happen is kids need to understand what it is that they are doing. Knowing that A2+B2=C2 is unimportant. It's knowing WHY that is important. Because if you can figure out WHY, than you are figuring out the same thing that a genius figured out. You must understand why, not what. The answer is unimportant. What is important is what makes the answer what it is. With the ability to think like this, one can understand much much more about this world of ours. When that happens, society will only continue to get better.