I would increase the amount of in-class participation and decrease the amount of homework.
I would shorten class lengths and diversify the core courses to include politics, current issues and critical thinking. These courses would be additional to the current core courses such as Math, Science, Geography and Language Arts and would be started at an early age. I believe this is needed considering the majority of youth (at least where I live) have no clue or interest in how politics works (or who their representation is for that matter). They are unaware of the world around them and I am saddened by this fact.