I like your son's idea. Maybe by fewer unwanted pregnancies, each child would be treasured and their educational needs fostered. They would, in turn, see more educational successes. Education does work. I have yet to see a person who wanted to be educated fail in that task.
Some people expect indoctrination rather than education.
Among other advantages of course. Everyone wants respect and the right to the same rights and privileges that so many take for granted. I found your question very interesting. To me, it is obvious that if education were really working, there would not be a need for standardized testing to measure the success of the education system. Whether this is because the teachers don't have the time to teach properly, or students are not learning properly, or parents are not providing support, or the tests are not a good way to measure the education process, or a combination of all of the above, I'm hard put to say.