Learn from what works already.

When we say that American, or Texan, education is failing, we are talking about in relation to other systems. This is measured in test results that are published yearly in a report called The Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). In the most recent report, we ranked in the middle of the pack for all countries tested. If you look at the countries that have better success than us, you can see that they are doing things in a similar way as each other in many areas. I would suggest that if you really care to fix things, you might read the report (or articles about the report) to see what we can learn from countries that are doing better than we are. Having that conversation seems more productive to me than beginning in a position of political doctrine and arguing for a side.
We can use what works in successful countries. Here is an article about Finland and other countries. They reformed their systems and always stay near the top in world rankings. When they went about reforming, they vowed to look at what works without allowing the debate to become a debate about doctrine or ideology. Here is the short version if you don’t want to read the article: The Finns subsidize the educations of top students to get them to go into education, they require a Master’s degree in education obtained after the successful completion of the Bachelor’s, they pay teachers a professional salary, they provide collaboration and planning time for teachers, the provide structure and intervention for students, they have small class sizes, and they have few or no students who don’t eat well or who live in poverty, they have a rigorous curriculum that all of the schools in the system use, and they fund education equally across the nation.