Well schools aren't exactly in need of B-2 bombers or high end satellites that can probably read our thoughts 5 minutes before we think them. It is hard to compare school's needs and the military needs.
I feel in reality, we could teach children everything they need to know to get to a point they are ready for college with a white board and a sharpy. L'hopital wrote the 1st calculus book and he did that in the late 1600s. He didn't have fancy power points, Macbooks, touch screen projectors, graphing calculators (which I never used once), or even a basic calculator. English shouldn't require more than a pen and paper. Social Studies shouldn't require anything more than a $50 textbook and maybe a globe.
The military on the other hand needs a lot of technology and a lot of money. The Navy SEALS shouldn't roll into Bin Laden's crib with an old Huey and a M1 Garand. They need top secret high dollar helicopters with high dollar satellites and high dollar night vision (and training) to pull it off. I wouldn't want the people who are facing danger to have anything less.
I also want to point out that I don't isolate the teachers as the only problem. No doubt parents have a big role. But I also know that from personal experience how bad teachers can be and it is easier to fix teachers.
I don't know if anyone mentioned this before but a great movie to watch is called Waiting for Superman. It's a documentary about the government school systems. Pretty damn eye opening also for the parents who say "my school district is fine"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKTfaro96dg