Where the solution may be, I don’t know.
I do know the solution is no where close to the federal government that has no powers to regulate education, and no particular competence in exercising many of the powers that it has.
Good parents want good schools. Bad parents are less interested in good schools than they are in avoiding or postponing trouble if their bad son breaks rules, so they mostly are interested in being sure that discipline breaks down. Only if the school programs are controlled from on high can enough lag be put into the feedback loops to give the bad parents their desire.
Local schools can have discipline, or not, and if not, good parents have the ability to move their children from a bad school to a good one. Discipline is only maintained by the classroom teacher, perhaps with support from parents and administration.
That really bothers the teacher’s unions, who seek to prevent the feedback loops from giving justice to bad teachers.
Moving control of the schools to the state or federal government usually occurs alongside promises of better funding. All things being equal, better funding helps, but the strings attached to better funding prevents all things from being equal. Poorer funding and better teachers beats better funding and worse teachers every time.
I homeschool. My son and daughter are learning Japanese, and calculus.
In many cities, the consolidation of small public schools, especially in inner cities, into large, window-less factories on the edge of town, not only destroyed the whole concept of neighborhood schools, but also made it far more difficult for parents to be involved. Then, the tell us parents need to be more involved. What a joke! And it has increased, rather than decrease, the number of bureaucrats earning 6-figure salaries in the central office.
With respect to discipline, yes, it is crucial. But, when I talk to public school teachers, over and over again I hear the same story: lack of administrative support. One cannot discipline students when no one backs you up. Thus, again, it is the system. And because the problem is so systematic, I consider it to be an incurable disease. And I have written the system off.
The only reform that has SOMEWHAT worked is the creation of charter schools, but even there the tentacles of the state reach in whenever they can. I am a voucher supporter, instead . . . . vouchers and tuition tax credits and parental choice. That is the only answer.
As for healthcare, that solution is above my pay grade, but, I know that Obamacare isn't it.