As a parent of two high achieving high school students I have some skin in this game, and some opinions based on current experience.
Privatize it all. No taxes, no public schools, no laws requiring school attendance or curriculum. Sell the land we have, and repeal every paragraph of the education code. No vouchers, no subsidies from those without children to those with kids. No government jobs and only those unions that can compete in a free market. Then things would get better. What we’d find is that large fractions of what we call education today are a complete waste of time – standing in line waiting, moving from place to place, etc. We’d find that a huge amount of the content delivered by teachers to groups can be delivered over the web just as effectively, and much less expensively. Kids would play with their neighbors to get exercise. Networks of moms would take turns hosting small groups. Specialists like music and arts teachers would make the rounds, getting paid market wages. Mandates requiring services for non-English speakers and mainstreaming of students whose intellectual development will never pay for the cost of the services delivered to them would go away. Some families would be much worse of than today, but 85-90% of all other families would be significantly better off.
