I am a parent of two teenage girls. The high school in our town consistently ranks in top 1 percent in the state ( and the state has best schools in the country); its per pupil spend is absurdly low; it is in the bottom 6 percent in the state (the town has little business presence and people living in it are middle and upper middle class, basically a lot of white collar people but not mega rich, also significant Asian immigrant community, I myself am an immigrant from former Soviet Union). There are districts in the state with ridiculous spending 26k per student versus in our town 13k, and they are basically in the bottom 10 percent in terms achievement. From my observation biggest difference between our town and towns where schools are terrible is parents ‘attitude towards education. It is mind boggling, education is one of the few free lunches  in life and so many people simply don’t care! In any case I would hate for people to conclude that in high achieving communities quality of education and teachers does not matter. It DOES matter! Talented and motivated kids need high quality and challenging education. Who is going to figure out how to solve the climate crisis or numerous other problems in this world. It is talented  kids who were blessed with ability to think out of the box.