[saraid216]

> From my experience I still think the education problem needs to be solved in K-6th grade.

This is true, but the fundamental education problem is that we're teaching the wrong foundations to begin with. It's not the substance of the curricula that's a problem but the overarching goal: we create adults who either follow the rules or rebel against them. In neither case do they think about the rules or engage with them constructively.

The consequence is, well... today.

> Increasing the pay of teachers and making teaching as a profession more prestigious and rigorous will solve the K-6th grade education problem, which will help with education as a whole.

I disagree. Oh, I think we should do it, and we should stop tying school funding to test results, but making teaching prestigious and lucrative won't fix anything by itself: bad teachers will get worse even as good teachers get better. Look at doctors.

I actually favor the opposite. Lower the number of paid teachers (and raise the salary accordingly) and start creating a social practice of volunteering. Use the paid staff as expert guides and institutional resources for the volunteers and gap-fillers in the curriculum. What you lose in pure rigor you'll make up for in quality and relevance. (This doesn't apply past high school; I'd rather see the consequences of this hit higher education before I speculate about how they should change to suit.)