I think the data says that american public schools in general don’t suck compared to systems in other wealthy nations, but they are much more unequal than schools systems in most other wealthy nations.
A large share of the public schools in the US are very good, similar to the very good schools in other wealthy nations.
A large share of the public schools in the US are very bad, but most other wealthy nations have very few such schools.
This is in large part because we have a highly decentralized funding system so the level of funding varies wildly between schools, and contrary to what many say there is a very strong correlation between spending and performance in schools. There are some outliers and intentional failures to correct for location based cost differences which those who oppose public schools out of ideology or profit motive can use to obscure, but in general more money = better schools.
