To deal with socioeconomic issues in STEM, start early; very early like K-12.
In a vague fantasy world in the USA, I would reduce the Department of Education to a fraction, shift education to the States, take the best parts of the winning systems fom all States, and make Federal recommendations accordingly. Rinse, repeat.
I am saddened that most of the children I come across in first-world nations, lack the ability to rationally think through a real-world problem.
It seems like a good approach but the funding of things like special needs education (FAPE) is federal in nature; cutting those would likely nuke special needs programs nationwide.
You would need to start with your 2nd or 3rd "approximation" of your iterative approach (ie, pre-calc which programs are already popular/effective and keep those) unless your goal is to cause maximum disruption and possibly jeopardize your ability to do the "make Federal recommendations" effectively.
I'm always mildly assumed that Switzerland has 26 widely-different (far more variety than found in the US) school systems with only ~8 million people. And a high-school degree that guarantees entrance into any university in any subject.
Their are federal standards for said high-school degree (also for earlier education stages). And it's a relatively hard degree to get (22% of students get it).
In a vague fantasy world in the USA, I would reduce the Department of Education to a fraction, shift education to the States, take the best parts of the winning systems fom all States, and make Federal recommendations accordingly. Rinse, repeat.
I am saddened that most of the children I come across in first-world nations, lack the ability to rationally think through a real-world problem.