I don't quite understand how you jump from "sacred cow / cannot be cut" to "insisting on service value is viewed as treason". I'm firmly in the camp that would

I don't quite understand how you jump from "sacred cow / cannot be cut" to "insisting on service value is viewed as treason". I'm firmly in the camp that wouldn't cut education, but does consider the state of the system somewhat prolematic. Those two opinions aren't in conflict. But, having experienced both the US and the German school systems, they were ultimately pretty similar: put 20-something children in a room with a teacher (where variability seems to be extremely high everywhere). Do calculus for 45min, repeat. Even though outcomes are quite similar as measured by PISA, there is a lot around the margins even these countries could learn from each other: extracurricular are virtually nonexistent in Germany and added so much, at least to my experience. OTOH I felt US high schools tended to be too large.