> It is the tragedy of the commons that no educator wants to pay the price of seeing their curriculum reduced or replaced with something better. For them better

> It is the tragedy of the commons that no educator wants to pay the price of seeing their curriculum reduced or replaced with something better. For them better doesn’t exist. I don't think this is correct. The issue is much more complicated. First, education is not really a tragedy of the commons, more like a tragedy of the anticommons [1]. I agree there's a time constraint to a curriculum. But that little hiccup is trumped by education's private-public problem: the US compulsory education space involves the private interests of parents/students overlapping with the public interests of their state, overlapping the big interests of the federal government. Education doesn't operate like an under-regulated scarce resource being depleted, much worse than that, it's an over-regulated scarce resource where nothing useful can get accomplished or make real changes - a dark hole of the anticommons. I also agree schools seriously need to add more practical subjects as well as life skills classes. With that said, every educator I see is not happy with the current curriculum and they usually have opinions on what to change first. Plus small shifts in curriculum have happened and are slowly spreading. There are states and public schools with software classes, health ed, workplace training etc... But fuck some states and school districts don't even want to teach science and want to keep teaching the Bible, to everyone, by law. The federal government had to step in a few times, but there are limits to what the fed can and should do. I'm not exactly sure how the workers comp values you brought up tie in with your very good education question, but I do see how workers comp in each state deals with similar problem: Why is an index finger valued at different amounts in different states? And then why is an index finger valued the same for different people? Surely some people are going to lose much more in life earnings due to such an injury vs others people, so how can it be standardized or fair? This is America. We have a Constitution. And have a social contract. And we have a population of all shapes, colors and sizes. A good education curriculum and system, determined by the government seems very difficult to implement and be compatible with the other structures here. If I had to answer I would say students should be given much more freedom, at a much earlier age to focus on a subject they want plus more freedom to learn on their own and get credit. Besides that, add philosophy and computer science. Cut pure math after algebra, offer math in the context of the other sciences like physics and computers. Cut some of the pure literature, no more old English and Beowulf taught for weeks, maybe a single class, teach more literary non-fiction in English classes. Pray for the best ;) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_anticommons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_anticommons