We absolutely do /not/ need to answer all those questions before we can conclude that countries out-performing the United States have significant public school

We absolutely do /not/ need to answer all those questions before we can conclude that countries out-performing the United States have significant public school systems. The other correlation I pointed out does deserve scrutiny, but data-driven decision making is not impossible and this data isn't nearly as bad as you claim. The correlation between high per pupil spending and educational outcomes is not a ground truth and does not hold universally. However, it does hold with surprising consistency throughout time and space). As an aside: you initially claimed that abolishing public schools will solve our performance problems. You provided zero empirical evidence. It's not even possible to compare the evidence for and against your claim, because you literally provided no evidence. You're holding other people's opinions to a ridiculously high standard of rigor while selling your own as self-evident. If the state of affairs is really this bad, if it is impossible to obtain good data and make reasonable predictions based on that data, then your initial post could be nothing except blind faith.