How to Improve Public Education:

1. Children may start school when they are ready, not by some arbitrary age.

2. Children may progress through required material at their own pace, and not be socially promoted based upon age or size.

3. No one gets past third grade without being able to read at a third grade level. No one gets past 8th grade without being able to read at an 8th grade level.

4. Starting in middle school, abolish all varsity sports programs. Your kid has some athletic talent? Great. Go pay his/her fees for some traveling team and better training/coaching. The rest of the ENTIRE student body must participate in at least two intramural sports in each school year from 7-12. Competition, learning about winning and losing, and being in decent shape are goals for all students, not a few talented ones who end up getting worshipped and receiving special treatment. No more traveling teams for any grade level and sport. No more Fri night football games to celebrate the skills of a few, or basketball, or softball, or whatever. Schools could trim hundreds of thousands off their budgets from supplies to coaching to insurance. A whole growth industry, teenage sports programs, is awaiting entrepreneurs. Schools could gain income from leasing their fields, arenas, stadiums.

5. Life skills classes for all students beginning in high school. Students will be able to handle a checking and a savings account; change oil and filter and a flat tire and an air filter; handle a washer and dryer and iron; cook more than one type of meal; first -aid proficient; type proficiently; basic computer skills.

6. All high schools would have two tracks: college, and immediate work force ready. World needs drivers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, painters, medical aides, and so much more, too.
Reduce the requirement for four years of English and Math. 

7. Let students find their passion, and encourage them to follow it. 

8. Turn off cell phone access to all campuses, period. You know where your child is. School has a phone. Nothing else is needed. Kids absolutely refuse to put their phones away. Critical thinking skills, basic writing skills, basic conversational skills, are all missing. As long as instant gratification can be done via devices, this will not change. 

9. Black studies must be made mandatory, not optional. If we don't discuss the past, the present will remain edgy and the future will remain foggy. 

10. Teacher salaries must be at least doubled, and their education requirements raised to either a master's degree, and/or national board certification. Salary scales must reward the grueling work these certifications require. Today they do not.

Until we value education in this country, and finally give up the agricultural attendance calendar and start going year-round, we will continue to lag the entire rest of the world we once led.