"Capt. JG" wrote in message
...
I think it starts, as you said, with instilling the desire to learn in kids
from their parents. So, part of it is to try and keep families together, or
if that's not possible,

A lofty goal, to be sure, but we already have three or four generations of
people (crossing all racial and ethnic lines, by the way) who are convinced
that the two-parent home is obsolete and that education is pointless. The
situation is exacerbating, not remitting.

ensure that single parents have enough bandwidth to help their kids and
still earn a decent wage.

Care to translate your "bandwidth" analogy into English?


We need to pay teachers more, since this will attract better teachers.

Numerous studies have demonstrated redundantly that money is not the prime
motivator in attracting individuals to certain professions, teaching
included. But tying the teacher's hands with respect to discipline, leaving
him prone to litigation, open to student abuse, and hating his/her job is
hardly conducive to attracting quality individuals to education. Once again
the *solution* of throwing money at the problem is and has been a failure.

We need to test kids, but not put the emphasis of teaching to the test.

Of course, all this smacks of socialism, but actually it makes good
business sense.

Education in the USA is highly socialistic already, so what's the big deal.
A proper identification of the problem is the answer, however. Too bad that
every time the problem is examined under a microscope and the real issues
are unearthed, the political correctness police prohibit airing and dealing
with them. Heaven forbid that we might examine the drawbacks of
single-parent families, cultural anti-education biases, etc.

Max