Now that is an interesting idea, but you need to be able to somehow make all parents responsible parents or at least foster that environment for the kids. Would it be possible to have some kind of after school program that can help kids do homework, improve their reading and math skills through some fun activities? Basically what many parents are doing today for their kids. I am not sure, but it would cost a lot of money to be sure.
1) Get rid of the school system, replace with vouchers. Choice and competition create an incentive to improve quality and lower cost. 2) Curriculum should include public speaking, personal finance, and leadership/teamwork/problem solving activities, starting in kindergarten. Would also make computer science mandatory, as it is a great way to learn logic and problem solving. That is a far more valuable skill than say, literary analysis. A foundation of reading/writing/arithmetic, combined with experience in leadership/teamwork/public speaking/problem solving, will set up a young person to be a productive, contributing member of society. Of course, this is not something that should be imposed universally, but rather a choice offered to parents with the ability to take their business elsewhere.
http://www.education.com/magazine/article/waiting-superman-means-parents/ American schoolchildren rank 25th in math and 21st in science out of the top 30 developed countries....but ranked 1st in confidence that they outperformed everyone else.
If you have a better method on finding out how much have the kids learned in the school, we would all like to hear it, something that is fairly objective and not too costly. There is no reason why they could not learn other things. As far as I know most assessment tests just test math and English, I am pretty sure the students do not spend 100% of their time in school on those two subjects. The point is they should be proficient in these two key subjects. The US have been importing STEM students from other countries for decades now,this is not something new. have you seen the number of foreign grad students in STEM areas at the top universities?
Then how do you measure success? How deep mommy and daddy's pockets are? How badly your ancestors were treated ?
I think I'm on board for a free-market/voucher system for education. But, I'm worried that building the marketplace incorrectly could have some bad public policy outcomes, especially around social justice. I think the architects need to be thinking about how the system will work for at-risk groups, minorities, immigrants, and the handicapped to make sure the new system works better from them than the current one. Otherwise, I could easily see us building something that unlocks plenty of value for white suburban kids, but leaves the more-expensive-to-serve kids out in the cold.
