I grew up with school cafeterias and school buses in the 50s and 60s. There was nothing terrible about it. It was simple food and simple transportation, and no one got up in a whirl about it. I have more memories of the classrooms than of these aspects.

My prescription is to return largely to the course content and textbooks of my father's generation in the 1930s. I read his textbook on grammar. College level, with details about what punctuation marks there are and how to use them. I read a textbook on home economics (cooking) and it was almost like reading a chemistry text, explaining what goes on in the chemistry of baking bread. There is a very clear and substantial thesis that, once it was accepted that everyone needed to go to college, the high schools relaxed all their standards. The prior attitude was that a high school diploma was as far as most children would go in their formal education, so the idea was to cram in as much as possible. My high school taught courses in English Literature, Mathematics up to calculus, Geography & History, French, German, Spanish, and Latin, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Shopwork. Not to mention electives in Art, Music, and Theater. The marching band was the pride of the town. Today, its music building is a demolished memory.