Bill Gates is right. Our high schools are failing far too many of those who count on them. Americans spend vast amounts on education, but too much of it goes to support entrenched interests and bureaucracies, while our kids get stiffed.

The good news is that we can gradually make the changes we need by shifting our talented, dedicated, skilled, hard-working (and powerfully unionized) school workforce toward new roles and goals as professional mentors. The bad news is that practically every other long-standing interest has to go.

What is it about our American high schools that doesn’t work anymore?

It makes no sense to transport students expensively to large, distant, costly, energy-inefficient, underutilized buildings where they’re wastefully herded from class to class, despite vastly different interests, abilities, strengths, and personal goals–in order to fulfill an entrenched, outdated curriculum.

What could work better? Build no more huge expensive buildings, use the ones we have differently, and completely change our teaching approaches as we currently know them.

Instead, give each student a safe, well-maintained home computer, the support necessary to use it well, and wonderfully-designed content software. Give them well-paid, highly qualified teacher/mentors who can work closely with them daily to help them plan their own educations according to their individual needs, guide them toward efficient learning, and help them master necessary skills. Give them a small, safe working environment near their homes for daily regular mentoring and studying. Give each student well-designed opportunities to understand and practice the social skills, values, and habits they need to become good students, good citizens, good people.

A range of mastery standards in math, reading, science, and technology could provide limitless personal goals. Computer-based content could be flexibly supplemented by an efficient computerized library media support system, doing away with expensive and quickly-outdated textbooks. Personalized computer-based scheduling and messaging could daily anchor each child's educational experience. Well-organized flexible learning groups and clubs could support innumerable important curricular goals, such as improved learning habits, personal organization skills, health, character, cultural awareness (music, art, literature), a sense of place and heritage (geography, history) as well as other emerging interests and social values.

Every student could belong to a local team enjoying friendly local competition with other teams in healthful, inexpensive, well-supervised and refereed sports. Low-cost school and sports uniforms, and more readily-available and anonymous (or universal) support for shoes and school expenses could be provided. Progress, good citizenship, excellence, and scholarly habits could be publicly recognized and rewarded. Field trips in all areas of interest could be offered. Financial support and mentored places for evening study in lieu of night jobs could be awarded to demonstrably conscientious scholars.

What do we stand to lose when we make such radical changes?

Our children's dangerous daily swim in the over-stimulating hormonal soup we now call high school, where the lowest cultural common denominators too often prevail…. The wasted time our children interminably spend transitioning–coming and going, changing and starting classes, standing in lines, waiting, waiting, waiting for something to start, something to happen…. Our children's sense of being anonymously factory-processed, instead of compellingly involved in their own highly-desired learning goals, outcomes, and futures….  Anger, rebellion, and desperation among too many students (and their teachers….) Pointless and harmful man-hours spent credentializing…. Proms…. Debilitating, expensive, space and energy-inefficient, exclusive competitive school sports systems which, themselves, create health and emotional problems, and primarily provide fodder for the sports industry…. Lost lives and liability suits from the inevitable violence arising from our contemporary culture's too many unnecessary school pressures…. Lost time for learning due to shootings, mercury, guns, drugs, viruses, terrorism, prank calls, snow (etc!)….

We stand to lose, in other words, nothing of any great value.

And what do we stand to gain? A better education and a better future for our children and our country. (That is, everything. Priceless!)