@RobertBarnes
Re: Education Reforms

I have a proposal for reforming education to both enable the public to fund it and minimize the risk of various efforts to subvert it. I will follow on with a second post regarding the handling of homeless and related populations and keep it to its own proposal.

My model of education reform stemmed from a thought. The town I live in is rather small but does have a highschool - my taxes go to it and I contemplated the process of sitting in on a class for supplemental or remedial purposes. We generally do not do this in our society.

The public education system is treated as a one-shot solution. You get broken up into age groups, advance through grades, and you have, generally, one shot to graduate. If I came here from another country or was raised by wolves or something and found myself in need, as a 25 year old, for basic education supposedly for the public, I would be directed not to the main stream public school system, but to the community college with various remedial courses.

The reform model then becomes obvious. Eliminate K-12. Lean into the community college model and create a proficiency testing system in place of age based grades. Ideally, the campus would be open and the remedial courses are cyclic lectures and study halls supplemented with mentorship programs. The older kids and adults teach the younger kids. The campus is open to the public and participation of families is not only welcome, but culturally expected.

Further, I would suggest there be regular demonstrations, competitions, etc - chemistry clubs should be doing demonstrations on the regular and as part of their proficiency testing, as should every set of majors. The idea being that children should see the work of others and be inspired to learn the material necessary to participate, themselves. Allowing businesses or even touring groups to do the same is also an option.
While not absolutely essential to the model, the goal should be to make it THE place to hang out in town from before the sun rises to after it has set, there should be something going on and worth dropping by for.

While there would be a need to pay for some teachers for lectures and consulting, their role is mostly to support the mentorship program. Most public monies go toward the infrastructure accessible to all of any age, invalidating the choice of home school. Catch the lectures you want, test and demonstrate proficiencies, and help those around you do so as well - and/or keep your skills sharp through expositions.

This comes from being in a town hosting the state fair - even when it is not peak fair season, there is frequently something going on at the fairgrounds. We should lean into that not just here, but in smaller areas.

There are a few weaknesses in this model. Transportation is not figured in, here. It is not impossible to stand up a public bus system around this concept or allow a private one to fill the gap, but any such solution would likely be more demanding on couriers than current student bussing models. Perhaps it would work out about the same, but it is something not accounted for.
There is no provision for concepts of truancy or absenteeism. This is a double edged sword in that the liberty to attend school when desired or defer education to a later age may have worse consequences than the current model. The assumption is that most people would act in their own best interests, but AI has shown us that people will gladly defer the tasks of learning and thinking. Conversely, people who are not interested in being at school are probably more of a distraction for everyone and are likely not retaining much of that education in the first place.
Smaller towns get the shorter end of the stick, here. The state implementing such a system, or even nation, would likely want to see to a system which allows for towns to more easily network and make the resources and activities of larger towns accessible to smaller towns via touring of some form or another. This model would potentially work in a town with 30,000 people or more and roughly equal surrounding areas that visit it daily, but towns of only 3,000 would be hard pressed to sustain the activity tempo to keep it successful.
It is also a radical departure from how we have done school for the past 100 years and the proposal does not readily comply with the prevailing theories for school architecture, layout, etc.

However, there are numerous strengths.
The biggest, as far as I believe, is the shift in culture and mindset that comes with the mentorship focus. Older children are expected to look after and assist younger children and the adults thereby. It is my understanding that the research shows combined age schooling shows significant improvements in the behavior of students and their academic performance. You learn and remember better what you end up teaching others. Younger children are not sectioned off and left to brutalize each other - they model and interact with older children and adults, reducing many sources of anxiety and disruption.
Parents are no longer isolated from their children - this is not a public daycare service in the guise of education, it is a public resource to improve your own education and that of your children. It is a place to participate with others in sharing of knowledge and experiences. Teachers are not kept alone with children and away from their parents - while some parents will certainly be reliant upon peer groups to help chaperone children while they are at work, the environment is made safe by the continual presence of the community and the mentorship focus keeps people engaged with the education system long after graduation and into their retirement.

Thank you for your time and consideration.