From personal experience in the magnet schools for middle and high, I had a few good teachers, but plenty of awful ones, some who did not even bother showing up to class or who simply put on movies. And the administration was not very active in trying to prevent bad teachers from being that way or active in understanding the student population at all, often absent themselves. My high school was very clean, and the diversity was excellent, but I not only felt unchallenged, but like I was wasting my time. The magnet schools, at least, also really underappreciate and undersupport the arts, in my experience.

Partially as a result of teachers who, when present, often have little respect for their students and the intelligence that they already have or in their efforts to be friends rather than intellectual role models, the students stop caring; my high school’s unofficial name was “fake school”. Most of the learning happened on my own outside of class for my own interests. There are lots of great teachers and great students and great administrators, but they are surrounded by opposites.