Just my brief $.02 after a decade of teaching at both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum (rural,poor,public and wealthy, suburban,private) on the topic of "fixing education". To leave all other variables the same and attempt to engineer a solution vis a vis our government is throwing good money after bad.
My takeway at the end of the day (after seeing kids who have failed mightily and will continue to do so and kids who have attended the world's best colleges and universities and achieved success as young adults) is that 80% of a child's education is dependent on the home and what happens there. The other 20% is the name on the front of the building. We (general use of the term) want to throw money at this 20% on our Pareto chart. I guess because we either don't understand the issues or it's not as messy as the 80%.
To put it in other terms, new buildings, hiring the best and brightest to work as faculty, etc. is not enough to offset a bad foundation. Again, let me be clear, these are just opinions based on my experiences and I am not sharing them as facts.
That's why I started with my first 2 points. Family is the #1 issue facing our country & #2 is safety. I'm not sure how you even set the conditions for success of a child if the home they're going to is all messed up and the neighborhood they're living in is unsafe to grow up in.
Most families are torn apart by money, violence, drugs, infidelity, etc. I'm really not sure which is #1, let's say for argument's sake lack of a decent, stable job is "a", violence is "b", drugs is "c" and personal failings like infidelity are "d".
We can fix "a" by setting the conditions under which companies can thrive- basically eradicate harmful policies like bad taxes, burdensome regulations, anti-American/competitive stuff, etc.
We can fix "b" and "c" by un-politicizing law enforcement and taking action to manage it in the fashion for which it is intended, to enforce our laws and maintain safe neighborhoods for our children. Accountability goes both ways, but turning a blind eye to the real source of violence because we have national agendas is one of the most damaging things we can possibly do to our own people. Bad cops need to be dealt with, but that's only a small portion of the equation relative to the number of instances. A highly important one as any arm of government should not ever, ever unfairly treat its people. For that reason alone, fixing our police forces is a high priority, but no less is fixing the criminals lurking within our neighborhoods preying on innocent people.
We can't fix "d", but what we can do is shun glamorization of abusive behaviors. There's no place in a civilized, prosperous society for the misogynistic, violent, etc type of crap that's being foisted upon our children and young adults. We don't need people to be religious, but we do need people to act like human beings and tell those peddling this garbage that it has no place in our communities. It is not a "lifestyle choice" to be an abuser of women, to be a crack head, to be a criminal, etc and making excuses or tolerating this crap has to stop.
This is not too hard to fix. We just need a leader willing to try, willing to tell it like it is & follow thru with real action. We will never fix 100% of our problems, but can't we fix 30% or 50% or 70%? I know one thing, we'll fix 0% doing what we're doing now. We're too divided as a country and nobody wants to work with anyone else & seemingly everyone would rather we all suffer instead of seeing anyone else have a chance at a better life.
