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In my opinion, the people best suited to determine the curriculum are those closest to the child - the parents. The reason being they know most about the childs abilities, aspirations, opportunities etc. How to empower parents with the ability to choose the curriculum is the tricky question. I think the best option is to give each parent a voucher to spend at any school (public or private) or their choice. Then allow schools to determine their curriculum and teaching methods and allow them to compete for pupils. Parents will choose the best schools for those kids and competition will reward the good schools and drive out the bad. Hopefully this system would also reduce the bickering over whether things like intelligent design and sex education are in the curriculum as if parents don't approve of these topics being taught they can vote with their feet and move their kids to a school that better suits them.
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