Yes, because they're designed to take advantage of economies of scale. That model breaks when dealing with outliers.
Another factor that comes into how the PS system is designed and works is that - they groom people for all kinds of futures because society needs the blue collar worker, the janitor, the burger flipper, the garbage man etc (several thousands of these) in addition to rock star CEOs, Presidents and scientists who win Nobels (we need very few of these). After pondering a lot on this, my theory is that the outliers are expected to help themselves using their innate talents and the system grooms people who are below average, average and above average to move on and fit into society's hierarchy. When you see the system working, you can get the feel that they educate the majority of kids to be mediocre (which is what the society wants) and the effort being put into the education is also mediocre. I dealt with a "cream of the crop" PS in california and the attitude of their star administrators and their star teachers were mostly of the kind "I am a public servant, don't expect too much out of me".
Sorry for the cynicism, I am now dealing with a private school and the attitude difference towards education is stark - you will never catch this school playing a Disney movie during rainy day recess (as my son's PS was bound to do).
