I would like to talk about free education.
So people often like to cite Norway, Canada and most of Europe as examples of free education. Basically everything from kindergarden to college is technically free. By technically free I mean your money doesn't go to the school directly, instead your tax money is going to every k-12 and college campus. As a result the standard of living is a bit higher, so the taxes are higher to cover the expenses for paying all of the school. Basically you are entitled to education without having to pay more because you are already paying for it.
Now this system is often associated with socialist type countries. In theory this could be a good thing. However there are flaws with socialism:
Humans are self centered creatures. Since the stone age, humans have only been concerned about their own survival and their family. They basically think for themselves.
Socialism on the other hand works for drone based societies, like ants. The queen sits around all day, tells people what to do and everyone works for the survival of the colony. However as humans, we aren't concerned for our neighbors as much as ourselves. So if you abuse the system for self, then other people will abuse the system and then it caves in.
Basically you have to work to keep the system going to receive the benefits of socialism. But if you and everyone else claim fake disabilities, live off welfare and unemployment for the rest of your life then eventually the system falls apart because no one can support it anymore. It falls apart, things go south, and there is anarchy.
Can socialist thing like free healthcare and education work in the United States? Maybe, but only if people are willing to pay taxes(which implies working) to support the services they use. NEETs, lazy folk, illegals, welfare frauds, selfish people(baby boomers), and bums will mostly hurt the system.
Fund better training for teachers, and redesigning teaching systems.
Money isn't a panacea, but it lets you improve.
well yeah you can. that's how, like, everything works. if a school has money they can afford better facilities, more classes, better tools for classes, and they'll be able to pay teachers more so they'll be happier. if educating future teachers is the issue, then that, too, can be solved with more money
In my opinion the quality of the teacher depends on self integrity and communication skills, these self acquired traits. Advice and experience can be passed down, but not everyone utilizes it.
While you could throw more money into training, it would be better to model your training over a pre-existing proven model of training. When people think more funding they think "Get better!" *throws a few more stacks of money*. I think we should first find the best way to train teachers by looking out how each country trains their teachers, then chose which one works best. From there we can probably estimate the time and money it would take to train those teachers using that system. However If I was a lazy person and you gave me a big pay bonus, chances are I would still be a lazy person.
As far as tools go, paper, pens, books and pencils are fine. Those tools brought about some of the greatest minds like Einstein, Nikola Tesla, and Stephen Hawking. You don't need fancy light up-glow in the dark holoboards, or personal notebooks/ tablets. Notebooks are tablets are great, they can lighten paper use and backpack weight. But who is to say that these items won't enable cheating? You have a kid do a math test on a computer, he will probably pull up a calculator. Essay? Copy and paste. Tablets? Angry birds.
Facilities? Bigger libraries would nice. Indoor gyms for schools that don't have them. Maybe pool. Observatories aren't necessary for K-12 schools.
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