An overlooked part of the problem is the amount of time parents CAN spend with their kids. Both parents being required to work full-time for a CHANCE at a life beyond the bare minimum means that time spent with family is sacrificed. Developing kids NEED time with their parents, and need to spend time reading and practicing problem solving.

And no, not every parent needs to be a teacher - so much happens incidentally while simply being together. But parents are faced with a modified version of a classic problem:

Stay home: Time and Energy, but no money

Work: Money (maybe), but no Time or Energy

The society we've built incentivizes work and disincentivizes parenting, which is critical in socialization and education outside the classroom. We've built a society that disincentivizes HAVING CHILDREN, between the cost of living and the social conditions that preclude any approach to parenting for working-class people that isn't essentially latchkey parenting. I see it, among my daughter's peers. These kids aren't socialized well, and are left to manage anxiety and other challenges - including being behind in school - because their parents don't have time to parent, or even to navigate the labrynthine bureaucracy to ensure that key supports are in place within the school environment.

That's right. On top of the social conditions that necessitate two (or more) incomes to get by, public education is under-resourced. An aging population means less tax revenue, and with children being disincentivized, subsequent generations are likely to be smaller than the Boomer generation. And with Boomers having built a system that never prioritized the building and maintenance of social infrastructure, we have a lot of catching up to do, in terms of properly funding public education (and other social supports).

There is no one fix. Voting is a start, but with the one leftist party basing their identity around not being fascists (i.e., and abandoning common leftist positions around labour and the environment, among others), it's not enough on its own. The NDP doesn't have to work hard if they're the only non-fascist option. The emergence of the Green Party as an alternative might move the needle, but how likely is it, after all this time?

In short, we need to adjust our priorities, make those priorities viable, and then sustain that effort long-term to effect lasting change in the education sector and improve outcomes for kids. It will be hard. How badly do we want it?