Our education system sucks, it just does. This coming from someone who has taught in the past, and has seen how the system fails our youth and fails taxpayers who labor and toil for a broken system.

We spend billions of dollars on education. Our politicians (on both sides) don't seem to mind spending more and more money to "help" educate our youth; yet no matter how much money we put in, it just isn't helping. Our education system is inferior to many industrial nations, while it used to be the best. There isn't just one source to the problem, there are MANY. But one of the biggest reasons, stems from the inefficient way government runs things such as education, and the teacher's union.

My plan would be radically different than what we have now, but it is a plan that would work and would be beneficial to almost everyone (except maybe the teachers' union).

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First, we have a 1% federal sales tax that would go specifically to education (primarily for building new schools and for administration purposes).

Second, we get rid of public funding for education. That would mean a significant decrease in property taxes, benefitting the elderly and those who want to send their children to private schools.

Third, we make people pay for their childrens' education. Why? If you have to pay for something, you value it much more. It was really only when I went off to college that I started to take my education seriously because I was footing the bill. This would make parents realize that they are investing in their children's education, because they are literally paying for it (though the money they save from property taxes would enable them to not have a huge burden). The 1% sales tax would also subsidize many school districts with low income families.

We need to abolish the teachers' union. They are not interested in the greater good of the children, they are only interested in their own selfish interests.

We should get rid of summer vacation. There is no reason why we should pay teachers $70,000 a year to only teach for 180 instructive days out of the year. Our children are way behind in areas like math and science, and millions of children barely know how to read and write (that goes for adults too). Summer should be the time when we play catch up.

School should go from 8:30-5. First, because the school days are too short and we could use the extra time helping our kids catch up even better, and to meet the need of working parents who are usually at work from 9-5.

Funding for schools should not exclude private, and religious schools. It should go towards any school seeking to get government funding. The only catch is that they must adhere to the above standards to recieve any such funding. The goal would be to adopt some kind of uniformity among schools and to level the playing field between "private" and "public" schools (there really wouldn't be much difference, and to give parents a much wider choice on where to send their children. If they are Christian, send them to a Christian school. If they are Jewish, send them to a Jewish school... Muslim, send them to a Muslim school. You get the picture.

Anyhow, that's just what I was thinking. Any thoughts?

The making people pay for it part is the only one I see DISASTER coming from. The price would have to be low enough that anyone could afford it, even the incompetent, heavily indebted, and poor as hell. If school is not possible for all kids, we create a system of ascription where children pay for their whole lives for the mistakes of their parents. This is true a lot of the time anyway, but it's something that should be minimized and not encouraged. Not to mention the fact that everyone misses about education. Education is a public good, not a private good. It really is somewhat of a twist that we view learning to be of more productive use for others and of more responsible citizenship to be luxuries. Yes, our society rewards these things. But somewhere we got stuck in the chicken-egg thing. If your system is to work then we should also say that there are no standards for what education qualifies you for, do away with licensing, and get rid of job specifications involving eductation- all of which I'm not totally against (though there are a few cases where licensing is a good idea- like doctors). But it's terrible to create a system in which a poor kid literally has all opportunity taken away because of the poverty or mistaken lack of action of parents. Not to mention the actual public costs, since an uneducated chunk of the populous is a bigger trouble for society than even the particular individuals affected.

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I stated that the poor would have the same opportunity as the rich through government subsidies raised by the sales tax. They might still have to pay something, but it would be affordable and provide a much better education compared to what we now have. It would also give them the opportunity to send their children to a school of their choosing (which they could not do before) where they could learn and grow much better than in a crummy public school.

My intent of opting for parents to pay for their children is not to exclude the poor from the process, but to help them take ownership of it. Some may choose not to, but in reality many already have. Some schools in low income areas have given up teaching entirely; what good is that to anyone? Let people have pride in the education process they are earning and we will have a properly educated public.

I woud like to seee a system work similarly to the college system, where a kid can get grants and scholarships if they work hard. This would help eliminate the possibility of those who want an education but can't afford it to go to virtually any school they wish to. I am all for rewarding kids for excellence in school, starting at the earliest age possible.

I can agree to that kind of thing.

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Ive seen how disciplined the students are in Chinese and Japanese schools and not only that but China and Japan are leading the economy in technological innovation and mass production; coincidence, I think not. I propose the American school system be modeled after that of China and Japan not only with education but in their discipline and responsibility as well, just without the Chinese Communist Parties propaganda.

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“Capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction. No universal selfishness can bring social good to all.” —Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois

then tell us what mechanism you use to deny the other 5 year old children access to the funding

I don't know about that. For one thing, I'd imagine a socialist such as yourself should be concerned as to what such changes would make to our teen suicide rate. For another, though the Chinese and Japanese do better on test scores, thei system produces less creativity and thus less entrepreneurialism and less problem solving at the lower levels. Typical of authoritarian parenting and too much emphasis on discipline. I would not sacrifice the American creative character for a more productive force of workers. Americans might need more discipline, but let's not go haywire about it. We also need free thought and critical thinking on all levels. There are probably some aspects we could adopt, but let's not get caught up in the usual box of taking whole systems instead of the aspects that work.

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That information is classified and to be given only on a need-to-know basis...

And I do not need to know.

My personal opinion is that all education should be nationalized so that a high, uniform ethical standard can be taught to all students.

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)

The only problem would be how to make sure the government isnt supplying schools with falsified information inorder to mask propaganda as education.

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“Capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction. No universal selfishness can bring social good to all.” —Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois