This became an interesting topic on like page 20 of another thread, and I think it deserves its own thread.

Obviously the US Education system needs fixing. Kids keep falling through the cracks, Teachers are overworked and underpaid. Incompetant teachers with tenure are pretty much untouchable due to crazy union laws. How would YOU fix it?

It was page 5 I believe. :P

But I agree with the sentiment it needs fixing. Its late and I will post my thoughts later.

I disagree with this statement. In my experience a great many teachers are pretty much failures. In my school years I had maybe 3 teachers that had an actual interest in their students and would qualify as "overworked".

Just think about the job they do, they always get weekends off, they get a 3 month vacation every year, and they get all (if not Most) holidays off. Their job is important no doubt about it, but Teachers, atleast day-wise work less than anyone else.

I think in high school we were in class about 190 days a year, that means they were working about the same. That's half the year off.

their 3 month vacation is quite a perk, but at the same time they do not get paid for it, either. Its more like a 3 month furlough

A part time job during that time wouldn't be all that difficult, and like I said, unlike most people they don't have to request a holiday off, the students get it, so the teachers get it.

is your system undefunded?

It's partially the issue, but that's just one of many issues. Doing something like doubling the funding would help a little, but there is a lot of bureaucracy and politics that also prevent the education from working better.

I would calculate how much the country is currently paying per child (my state, it's 20K), and create vouchers. Each parent would get a voucher worth 20k to take to an accredited institution of learning.

Currently top private schools cost under 10k a year. They provide far better environments for learning, and pay teachers far more then public schools.

I would sponsor a private non profit company, that is to be regulated by the government. This company does three primary things. It sets the standards that all learning institutions need to meet (minimum standards). It calculates how much the vouchers should be worth each year. Without federal corruption, we might be able to offer the best education in the world, for half of what we pay now. And it would manage the funds for the school.

The seed money would come from taxes (like it does now), but each voucher is essentially a loan that the students must pay back though income tax collection. So let's say a child goes to school for 12 years, and the average voucher was worth 15k. let's also say that today, we pay 7% of our taxes to education. When this child graduates, he would have to pay back the 180k it cost for his education. He would do this at 7% of his income, until 180k was paid. That's 2.5 million in income, or an average of 62,500 over the course of a 40 year employment (with inflation, that's not much). Once this is payed, the individual would no longer be required to pay taxes on education, but could always donate money to the education fund (a lot of rich people like to pay large sums for education).

Additionally, if your parents payed for your education out of pocket (meaning they didn't take the vouchers, they just paid whatever the government's voucher was worth to the learning institution), then you do not have to pay that amount back.

This money is managed by the no profit. Not the government. The only involvement the government has, is a mechanism to collect though income tax, and pass the funds on to the non profit.

Being you only go to school for 12 years, but work for 50 or so afterwards, there should be more money going into this fund then going out. This extra money can be used in only two ways. One is to cover the people who die before they pay the funds back, and the other is to pay schools for current students. It's not to be touched for other things.

With this system, all students get a far better education then they get today, the system is self funded, and regulated by the government. No longer will education be a tax burden, or an entitlement. Teachers will be payed far better salaries.

Schools will have to answer to parents, not washington. If a school wants your voucher, they have to do it better then the next school. Competition breeds excellence.

so, your solution is to dump anyone born into a poorer family with over 100k in debt? just what every parent wants for there child, lots of debt from day 1 of there working life

You would pay it back at whatever rate we pay for education now.

If that's 7%, I am paying (and every one in the US) that rate for life. I never get to stop paying it.

With this system, you only pay what you would have paid anyway, but you get to stop once your burden is paid off.

Also, with a world class education, the kids of poor parents won't be poor. It's like sending them to the best private school in the country, with no downside.