Kids could be hired for summer internships as a screening mechanism without the supervision of education bureaucrats. Temporary agencies could be set up with the exclusive role of placing kids in part-time work with a view toward career exploration and skill acquisition. What Junior Achievement does for developing entrepreneurship could be replicated for technical trades, sales and other corporate roles. Explorers Scouting and Urban League mentoring programs could all be expanded with greater business support. Each of these things are more efficiently done by private organizations relying in part on volunteers from the business world than by government.
Families have many unexplored options as well.
Parents could also agree to indemnify employers for workers compensation or other risks arising out of the employment contract. This exposure may, in fact, be insurable at a very low rate. Americans have looked to government as the provider and sustainer of all things for so long that most have forgotten how to do things on their own initiative. The Western democracies are experiencing the encroaching insolvency of the welfare state, and the total social breakdown following in the wake of massive entitlements. These social conditions should motivate those in free enterprise to re-educate the public about the advantages of liberty and private initiative.