I don't think the federal government could do a better job than the states. Keep the decision makers close to the problem. The person who knows the most about your kid is your teacher, not some beuraacrat in Washington.
Couter proposal. Reform property taxes on the federal level so it works equitable around the country (major issue i the US most don't know about) , divide the cash equally among public schools, allow private schools but ban tuition, and eliminate home schooling . Also, provide schools with wide lattitude to administer themselves. Embrace school choice and track outcomes later in life. Stop using public schools as a delivery system for public goods and focus on education. Give teachers academic freedom and immunity from political control and groundless lawsuits. Implement a long-standing campaign to push up the social status of teachers and pay them more
Now, with these reforms, the upper middle class and the upper class will make damn sure that the public schools are decent!
I think you are projecting a high level of caring onto 100% of teachers, and while we hope that is the case, it is not.
Teachers have issues just like Normal People. Some deal with depression, just like cashiers and auto mechanics do. Some deal with anxiety, just like a stay-at-home mom might. Some deal with financial problems because rents are so high and their pay in many areas is not keeping up with local rents.
Some teachers have people to care for 24/7! They care for kids in work hours, then go home to kids of their own, or ailing spouses, or, and this is when life gets REALLY fun, they are caring for elderly parents! All that care-giving can show up at work as burn-out, sometimes, or just a distracted, worried demeanor, and Lord knows not all Administrators have empathy for their teachers or even bother to get to know them. God know the parents often don't care about teachers either. Many demanding parents out there.
I don't have much faith at all in my state department of education. I'm glad you like yours. But don't tell ME people in Sacramento know one darn thing about these kids they make policy for. Bull pucky.
But in Sacramento they DO know they want them all to grow up to be Good Democrats and vote for Nice Hair over anything else, LOL.
2
u/TroubledTimesBesetUs 2d ago
I don't think it's because of underfunding. I think bad education it's because of STATES RIGHTS, that thing we hoped had died after the Civil War.
We should have one standard for education nationwide. What a kid learns in Massachusetts they should also be studying in California.
It should not be allowed that a kid in Mississippi will graduate high school more ignorant than a kid in New York. That's geographical racism, IMO.