The Education system is a wreck, Whether it be from forking out thousands to go when you can't afford it or because when you get there, you aren't prepared for it. The Education system in both the UK and the US is and has been in tatters since the 1920's, the things you learn in High school are of no significance for your life in the real world, unless you are going to be a mathematician or a hitman, Pythagoras' Theorem is not going to be of any use to you. In the modern day you should at least be learning; What laws are on the books, How to do your taxes, Your rights as a worker, Intermediate maths and Biology, Physics and Chemistry. Oh yeah, and Common sense, since it's becoming apparent that that's not that common anymore. But i digress, it's not just what you are taught, but HOW you are taught. The old school standing at the front of the class passing off a curriculum made up by the state isn't good enough anymore. The Kids, the teenagers have to be given more responsibility but in a fun way, through direct democracy.
Sudbury Schools and Summerhill schools are the way to achieve this, Summerhill Schools allow for the Child to have the same rights as the teachers in that they decide how their time is used at the school, Sudbury Schools are when the school fits the curriculum around the child. If that child want's to learn how trains work they'll fit the curriculum around the aim of figuring out how trains work. If the child has a goal they want to work toward the school will figure out the most fair and Democratic way of doing just that.
Now i hear you saying, "If kids are allowed to control their education, they'll just be lazy and want more recess" and to that i say, if you look at Primary Schools and Secondary Schools in Finland, in Finland kids are given as much recess time as they want (to a point) and those kids have a 80-90% success rate of getting into College. College's in Finland work in the same way to how the Primary and Secondary schools work, so from there they still have the same percentage of success. So your worry that kids will be "lazy" is true but its not a threat to their education at all.
The other argument against it is "There's no point giving them a choice in that, because you are just handing them something on a plate, that's not how the real world works" Well no, Job choices and availability go hand in hand with what is taught at schools, if schools diversify what they teach then the job sector has to diversify the jobs available for those diverse skill sets. What ends up happening in countries that have a State enforced curriculum is that because the education is so outdated and irrelevant the job sector does the bare minimum and creates jobs that meet the bare minimum requirements for what the general state educated populace knows, because the education hasn't really changed since the 1930s you'll end up with 1930s jobs that pay almost nothing apart from the minimum wage. Businesses have a obligation to give these people work, they don't have to, the technology is there to automate fast food chains but because they can get help from the Government to pay these people the minimum wage they just do it so that they don't end up on the back-burner.
Educating kids in a way that allows them real responsibility is a good thing, the amount of times that i've heard from both Employers and parents that their kids or work colleagues don't take any responsibility for their own actions is Ironic, because the state giving schools a curriculum is lazy and takes all future self-responsibility away from the kids. You can't shout at someone whose just started work about something they don't know that "they should know" if it ain't in the curriculum how are they supposed to know? If you give them the choice at school then they will know what they want to know, and they'll end up in a job suited to them not the other way about.
I was failed by an Education system that didn't want to give me any help when i was legally supposed to, My School knew i was Autistic but didn't do anything about it because they didn't see it as necessary. Democratising Schools isn't just something that you would have to do for kids with "special needs" its good for everyone and helps to diversify the job market, think about it, you wouldn't have to sit there through gritted teeth and say you work in MacDonalds, since there is a massive stigma behind that. Instead you could say you work as an understudy to a mechanic because you wanted to be a mechanic at school and they helped you get your foot in the door. It's fine to say that your kids are Educated but it means nothing, when the education they've gotten isn't in something relevant to them.