Poverty and education

Sort of a chicken and egg problem.Poverty negatively impacts education in a multitude of ways. Impoverished parents who work multiple jobs are not available to help their children. Impoverished areas do not have sufficient money to invest in education. Graduation rates suffer as people leave school to work. People working multiple jobs, rotating shifts; have to decide between a job or paying to further their education. Have children, well then you have to provide for them first.
Education, where to start. If we don’t invest in education well we get what we pay for every time. Make a habit of demonizing teachers and people won’t want to teach. Don’t invest in teachers and pay them competitive salaries in order to retain talent, well they eventually leave. Let politics and personal beliefs dictate what is taught then eventually you end up with a mess.
I understand that there are so many other issues involved that we can’t ever get past the complaining and finger pointing stage when it comes to fixing education but sooner or later enough of us need to decide that we have had enough and try to fight the good fight. I am not convinced that the states can succeed in fixing education as they continue to struggle decade after decade. Even within each state individual school districts have such disparity that it is time for a drastic change.
So here is a radical proposal to fix education nation wide, sure to twist the knickers of some but we need to fix this problem.
First step is to nationalize education and make all teachers federal employees with competitive salaries whether they are in a big city or a small rural town.
Establish reading, writing, math, science, civics, world and american history standards at the national level so that a student in any grade can move to another school anywhere else in the country without being penalized. This is especially true for the children of our service members who are faced with difficulties as duty stations change.
Have each state establish history requirements for their state and local regions.
Expand the school year to be year round and have physical education to provide a healthy balance to activity.
Provide after school activities, tutoring and homework labs so single parents and households were both parents work have a safe productive place for their children to stay and continue to learn.
Establish community outreach programs to encourage and help parents and guardians get involved effectively in the education of their children; we need to make this a positive experience for the entire community.
We have to start somewhere and decades of failing schools will not turn around overnight. The nation has to be committed to the cause, a commitment last seen in World War II when the nation as a whole was willing to sacrifice together.
Now I know there will be many who clamor and say that states rights would be trampled by this plan however the preamble to the Constitution clearly states "promote the general Welfare" and the education of children is part of the general welfare. This is restated in Section 8 "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States" Congress has this authority it only has to exercise the authority.
Do I think this is a perfect solution, no. But this solution would be effective at normalizing how much is spent per pupil as well as ensuring students are receiving equal education. Fixing some of the basic issues will allow us to begin making positive changes.
One other major change we need to make is to re-prioritize and stop cutting education spending first because that just guarantees failure.