This may have been covered in the past but I think it should be implemented in all schools.

Drivers training: It doesn't need much explanation. I simply think that it needs to be included in all schools.

Gun Safety: I think that all schools should have a class that teaches a gun safety program. That teaches kids how to use a gun along with how to avoid situations when there is a gun present.

Money management and budgeting: I don't know about everyone else but I was never thought money management and budgeting when I was young,.
and it was a major sturggle for most of my life.

Thoughts?

They might want to start with reading, rightin, and rithmatic........everything else is a follow up to these basics.

In the schools here
Driver's Ed: check
Gun Safety: Not a check but the freedom to have hunter safety education in schools is here, I've done it in my classroom. Yes, actual firearms are brought in for the safe gun handling aspect.
Money Management: We call it Financial Literacy, it is mandatory to graduate high school. (check)

This plus history. History that goes back to our countries beginning.

I took Drivers Ed in HS, was a fairly long waiting list for it and was available to seniors only. (12th Grade)

When my daughter was a senior in college there was a mandatory graduation requirement that a student had to volunteer at some entity in the Fairbanks area.

I was more than a little 'huffy' about it.
Mandatory volunteerism seemed like more than just an oxymoron to me.

There are several things that should be taught that aren't.

I went to a small country school. Drivers Education was available for all
I brought my gun to school and locked it in my locker.
We had a skeet shooting club also available

I guess big inner-city schools might be different lol
Lots of big city people never drive in their lives. It's a hassle for them. You have to rent parking because most have no parking lots or driveways Roads are always congested and not reliable to show to work on time. . Mass transit is more convenient and way cheaper for them.

Gun safety for inner city youth.........im not sure whether theyll come away with good values or more will just want to "put-a-cap-in-your-arse"

Our schools the us constitution is mandatory to graduate out of the 8th grade, and you have to have US history, a money management class of what they have to offer, a couple different class you can count towards the credit.and a health class one that fits the criteria for credits to pass high school. Maybe some more mandatory ones that I dont know of right off hand. My son starts high-school next year. He signed up for classes and I was surprised of the things he signed up for. At 9th grade they will place you into math, language, history class you got to pick from 2 classes to take all year and one to fill in a semester because the health class is a semester. He is a math guru loves it, so when he brought his sign ups home he signed up from business management for the semester class, world geography, and introduction tools and trades for the whole year class. Our high-school had a good construction trade class, the teacher offers labor from the kids for free and goes to company's have builds things or remodeling for just cost of parts. So completely surprised me when he signed up for that, because thats not his style but I am glad he did and hope he learns alot because dad has somw projects that needs done lol.

Need to add "how to be a parent and not just a sperm or egg donor" Way too many Left and Right wing freaks have a misperception that teachers/schools raise their kids. At the level of stupidity I see coming from their homes, Teachers should be empowered to tell parents they are worthless and require them to attend parenting classes. Everyone in my family that teaches or works in the school districts has become a political pawn and they are ready to quit. Little Jr can do no wrong and one side says he's entitle to express himself and the other side comes in shooting their mouth off because everything Jr did wrong was my daughters fault. She's in a cant win situation.

I don't think driver's ed should be mandatory. I do think it should be available. But as some said, in urban areas many will never even have a licence.

I think at least a basic gun safety should be mandatory. Even if it just a segment of a health class.

Personal finance should absolutely be taught!! Things such as loans, credit cards, mortgages, balancing budgets, etc. I remember that....in grade school I was taught how to use and balance a checkbook. I was never taught anything about credit or loans. I also remember in grade school, when I was quite young... 3rd or 4th grade.... being briefly taught about the stock market. It was fun! In those days, stock quotes were still published in newspapers. I think our segment on the market lasted a week, and they had us pick 3 stocks and then monitor them for the week. I think I made money if I remember right lol. In this internet age, it would be simple, in a finance class, to have students "trade" in the market for the entire semester, and a valuable learning experience!

Equally important in my opinion, is civics. This in addition to American history. But kids should be taught about the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bills of Rights, etc., as well as the political process, and of course the three branches of the government and how they work together (or are supposed to work, anyway).

The educators in my family have came to the same conclusion. It’s a shame. The education system is broken. Supposedly MN has one of the better public school systems in the country, I’m afraid to see what a worse one looks like! I get crap all the time for homeschooling but my kids are ahead of the local public school kids and they’re learning real world skills everyday. They’re working on the farm and have helped my parents remodel their home. Never had to hear the “6-7” crap and my kids are still in with the rest of the herd in church and activities. Instead of wishing the schools would cover these skills, it’s up to us to do it! The government is failing. Go figure

"never let school interfere with your education"..... Twain?

Agreed, like the definition of volunteer eh’

Finance, money management, basics of saving for retirement, different types of accounts and their meanings.

That subject is one that is lacking. Needs to be priority

Daughter's a high school English teacher, and has good penmenship. Admin reached out to her about teaching a class on cursive writing.
These high school kids were raised on computers and learned how to print in grade school but didn't advance beyond that.
Daughter says they print their names on their school work.
Just a basic life skill. How to sign a check. How to sign a contract etc...........

Lots of these kids can't even read cursive any more, because it isn't taught in school. My penmanship may be atrocious, but at least I know how, and I can read it. I used to survey and reading some of the original GLO notes (most from the 1880s and 90s, in the areas I worked) was an art that took a little experience.

Teaching kids finances, how to budget, how to balance a checkbook, and how loans and compound interest work. They had such a class when I was in school as an elective, I didnt take it, because I already knew that stuff before I got to high school, (we were taught about compound interest in lower grade math, and the rest I knew from life) but a lot of adults don't know that stuff today.

Yes BUT getting them to exposed to it is the goal , once people are exposed to volunteering it opens their eyes to a world of things they can do for the community and it builds community

it is somewhat voluntary in that they can choose anything as long as they do something.

it also builds greater understanding of community

one of the very eye opening things I volunteered at was the local food panty

perhaps their term was wrong in the context , it should have been , mandatory community service to graduate. You may choose any place to volunteer or we can have you pick up trash with a sheriffs deputy observing.

There's only so much time in a day. What classes should be cut for drivers education?

Spot on ! Handwriting/ penmanship is a lost art. I can take notes that are barely legible. But I can also print or write cursive like a retired female English teacher depending on my needs.

My Granddaughter worked at the local grocery as a checkout. You had to balance your drawer and sign off at the end if your shift. Junior in high school and a good student and she had no idea how to write her name in cursive. It’s a tragedy we allowed that to happen in the Public Education system.

They used to teach drivers Ed. in school. It was an elective, but I remember everyone signing up for it as soon as they got their driving permit. I don't know when that stopped.

We get that at work a lot when people have to help out other areas. Its called voluntold. Lol

I was speaking with a National Transportation Board member years ago. In his opinion, every training program that lowered the driving age, or increased the number of young drivers (such as Drivers Ed), was detrimental to public safety

Data at that time showed that the age of a driver involved in an accident was the single greatest factor, whether they took Drivers Ed or not. Postponing the age of beginning drivers would save more lives than drivers education.

Not sure I completely agree.

In the not to distant future ,,, humans driving will be a thing of the past

A human behind the wheel will considered too dangerous

To high of an insurance risk

I disagree that the system is broken; I see it as society is broken. Teachers are like the innocent bystander in the gas station that gets robbed. Armed robber comes in and holds up the clerk and shoots, the bystander is shot for just being there. The Republican and Democrat "Karens" of this country are so pitted against each other, that the ones trying to do the right thing are having their hands tied behind their back. If the extremists could just take their head out of their rear ends for a moment and work together to accomplish what's best for ALL. The movement around here has been to vote in these wacked out freak extreme so-called republicans onto the school boards. I've been Republican all my life and they are a true embarrassment. Unbelievable the misinformation they spread and the blatant lies they get away with to further their agendas. They are forcing tunnel vision education on our kids and scrapping top tier methods.

That’s why charter schools are now greatly outperforming public schools

If I had a child about to enter the system,,,,

It would be a charter school or home school

Democrats are in charge of most school boards so I don't get your statement?

As far as I know, all the schools out west still do, didn't know they had stopped doing so back east.

You’re correct. The crazy pendulum swings both ways. Each side thinks it is only the other side but that’s laughable.

Well said.

School boards have been firmly controlled by Democrats for decades and they have failed miserably at running the nation's schools. When conservative parents finally got fed up enough about it to do something, it doesn't really surprise me that they chose extreme right individuals to replace them with. I think what really woke a lot of parents up was the push to embrace transgender and LGBTQ idealogies in schools. The school boards had became extreme left, and I think people felt the extreme right was needed to reset things.

I know that there are just as many on the far right as on the far left that spread misinformation and find that unfortunate. I call it out when I see it and often get labeled as anti-Trump or even liberal for doing so, although that is far from true.

I would be curious to know what you feel are the "top-tier methods" conservative board members are scrapping, though.

I would be curious to know what you feel are the "top-tier methods" conservative board members are scrapping, though

For specific names of programs, I would need to ask my wife or daughters. My oldest daughter was the most extensively involved a number of years in evaluating and getting trained on various curriculums and teaching methods. Implemented I think for three years and she was seeing huge improvements (elementary level). Her district was taken over by an extreme group of conservatives with no teaching experience. Board is directing them to revert to old curriculums and whacking head count, classes, and various programs. for the nearly 30 years I've been in Watertown area, I have been impressed the level of education. One of the few districts that produce well above average - high level of students go on to college or trades. Extremely high level of AG, Biology, Engineering, and music students. Now we have a board that knows more about educating kids than all the staff combined (Hhahahahahaha).

We had to take shop and home ec. when in 8th grade, home ec included how to balance a checkbook as well as cook . Basic life skills one needs. Civics in High School need to now how we are suppossed to work as a country. Those basic life skills really need to be taught to these kids so we ended up doing a lot of that with our own, just teach them at home too . We did the school thing more for the social as anything. The wife had them reading and all that before kindergarden Had to correct more than a couple "facts" or ommissions over the years from schooling

Also, parents still have to PARENT. Can’t rely solely on the school system nor blame a broken system. Parents need to do their job. I don’t care if you’re in a private school or public setting, lack of proper parenting is a big problem.

At some point before high school graduation

A semester or two studying socialism should be mandatory

Starting with this book,,,,

Finance basics and some civics (government).

I don't know what the correct percentage is but more kids should be in vocational schools learning a trade. We need more electricians--not more barristas at Starbucks. We definitely do not need anymore college graduates with, for example, a basically useless communications degree.

Every kid should graduate high school (including votech) with the ability to proficiently read, write and perform math. They should understand our government and our history.

They should learn to think critically--good luck here. The right wing nuts and left wing nuts in government, on the school boards and many of the parents cannot pull critical thinking off for themselves.

I will add tax education. For example how required minimum distribution on 401 and irs can increase you income there for tax rate. And that can cause you Healthcare cost to rise on the government old people health insurance. You wont egr better coverage but will pay more could cost you thousands

So having other acounts like a roth to draw from and knowing when to and what to take from each account is important.

Also sequence of return risk and the importance of having enough liquid funds available so your not forced to sell during a down market locking in permanent irreversible losses.

The old ways that used to be taught before the government got involved. Much like the Amish but now they have to include computers to keep up with the rest of the world.