I read the first article, and I have two questions.

First, what evidence is there that these people played an important role in the development of the school system. The article makes a good case if these were actually the influential people here, but it is clearly arguing for a specific conclusion, so I cannot trust it on this without further evidence. The implication that Carnegie was involved in this is particularly surprising, since his philanthropic creation of public libraries seems to pursue the opposite goal. Also, all the quotes were, as far as I recall from Americans. Do other countries have better public school systems, did they have their own evil plans, or did they copy blindly from the US?

Second, what is maintaining the current system? The people quoted mostly lived decades ago, but you seem to imply that inertia is not the only thing preventing reform.