There are lots of problems in this and no real solutions. If there were real, easy, or plausible solutions, they would already be here. The author says, "We kick twenty percent of our kids out of school illiterate, innumerate and socially dysfunctional . . .", as if... what? Those kids can be made more literate by more time in the school system that's had them for 13 – 16 years? How much of the responsibility is the schools, and how much is the individual's or the parents'?<p>Bear that in mind before you propose a large-scale, institutional, governmental, and bureaucratic solution. Before you propose that government is the problem, remember that these people are still people and you still have to live in society with them. There isn't a simple answer to the problems being described, and if your glasses are colored by ideology, you're going to miss that essential fact.<p>EDIT: Removed gratuitous and incorrect comment WRT the author.