Nonetheless, I don't think there is anything inherently so wrong about the US college/university system. People outside of the US wouldn't be spending buckets'

Nonetheless, I don't think there is anything inherently so wrong about the US college/university system. People outside of the US wouldn't be spending buckets' loads of money to send their kids here. And lately, Canada seems to be absorbing a lot of influence as a tech powerhouse. Specific education systems in the US are on-par with the best in the world. People outside the US are not sending their kids to inner-city New Orleans, Detroit, etc. - they are sending kids to Boston suburbs and private schools. The problem is not "all our schools are terrible", the problem is the massive variance in outcomes.