Pretty big role I would say. But it was a lot better before the Federal government got involved.
It once had a very big influence before social programing got in the way. We have lost sight of the basic education and premise that every student must meet a goal of mastery in each grade. We have come to a "feel good " society where the child's psyche was more important than the knowledge he consumed. The end result was the child's psyche suffered when he was an abject failure in school from not performing and floundering in the grade level he wasn't ready for.
We have more students not performing on grade level, students dropping out of school and a mentality that something should be given without being earned. Education and society has helped perpetuate these faults.