One way forward

I believe how we treat the least of us says a lot about the rest of us.  For that to happen in my world is  Look around and see who does things we would like to have the same results here  For instance everyone speaks of a world class eduction outcome  Where is the best and how do they achieve their goals... For education it is Finland  There are 3 teachers in every class of no more than 20 students  We have one teacher for every 35 students

Stop private and privately run prisons  Stop putting people in jail for drugs   Reinstitute the draft  Not an armed forces draft but a public service draft where we could at a young age learn how our society works and how we are bound together by a hope for a better future for all of us and humanity as a whole  That could be the pool for those teachers.  And if they went into teaching aftwards forgive some or all of their educational debt.  Have an energy and energy grid policy 50% of energy is lost in transmission.  More money for basic research.  This is usually given to research organizations in government and universities.  Do this especially with materials research. 

That would be my big 3 
education
energy
research

All 3 of those things are done by both government and the private sector  One does it no better than the other as a whole.