Bad American education
America was once a nation among the best when it came to matters concerning the education offered. But today this is not the case with countries like Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech and several others taking the lead in front of America. Despite America spending a lot of money on education, the amount spent has not helped in improving the performance in class being achieved. In fact among the developed countries, America is the second in the amount of money that is spends on education so the problem cannot be the money (http://www.cbsnews.com). America however requires to greatly improve its education standards. A country like America should not be being ranked 24th in education among developed countries (http://rankingamerica.wordpress.com/). America is currently holding very poor positions especially in maths and sciences as well as reading. The current know-how status for the country in maths stands at 34%, 29% in science and 33% in reading. In the overall rankings, the country stands at position 21 in science and 25 in maths among the developed countries (http://www.cbsnews.com). There has to be a problem for a country that was once the best in the quality education it offered its students.
Michele Rhee once said that there is not a high regard to education when interviewed by CBS news. The kind of seriousness that was once given to education is no longer given to it. There is no particular person to cast the blame on but all involved people share the blame. Students have chosen celebrities as their role models in life. A very skilled scientist can barely be a role model to a student in America. This has been among the several reasons suggested for the fall of education in America. Among other reasons, teaching has also lacked very skilled teachers. Teaching has been considered a reconsideration after the best of the students have gone to the highly paying and more respectable careers like medicine, technology and even law (http://www.nytimes.com). With that, the career of teaching has fallen below average. The average salaries for an elementary teacher are estimated to be around $52240 while those of physicians are way higher amounting to around $161490 per year (http://www.cbsnews.com). This has made teaching not to be a very attractive career among graduates.
Other countries have defined the kind and type of education they want to offer their students. They have done this on national level. This way the government is able to cater for the nation’s education as a whole and plan its resources accurately. In America this is not the case. Every state has been given the right to decide matters of education as they wish. Education of students of the same level in different states may very much vary according to the education programme a state has chosen to follow. A state may have fairly good teachers and facilities but the programme chosen mat not be the very best. In other countries the government finds experts who critically evaluate and design what many countries call a curriculum. Differences in performance in this schools may be as a result of other factors. The American education policies should also be revised in order for the government to be able to monitor how education is delivered to students in the country as a whole.
With the government deciding to invest more money in the well performing Charter schools, this has threatened the public schools because more money being allocated to the performing charter schools means that less resources are available for the public schools. So who will be looking out for the students in the public schools if not the government? Education is definitely not only about the students in it, many interests in the field should also be addressed if at all we are going to raise the level of education in America. Interests like those of funds for the public schools should well be looked out for.
It has been discouraging for the country at large to have only around 70% of students who graduate on time. In places like DC poor record of only around 50% of students graduate on time. On statistics taken on some individual schools, they showed that only 22% of 8th graders in the UFT Charter School passed in the English test and even worse 13% passed in the Maths. On the same 8th graders for all the New York City schools, the statistics were: 37.5% passed in English while 46.3% passed in Maths (http://www.cbsnews.com).
Education many times has been compared to a business of which it is. Every business has its managers who are well equipped with management skills. How good or bad the manager is determines the rise or fall of the business. Education deserves the same treatment. It is true to become a principal one ought to be very knowledgeable but equally principals also ought to be good managers. Principals of schools also need good management qualities in order to promote the education business.
While the level of dropout rates of the year 2013 decreasing to 7.9% compared to the 8.1 of 2009(http://www.statisticbrain.com/high-school-dropout-statistics/), a lot is required in order to improve the level of education in the USA. Proper management of schools and also distribution of recourses is required. Greater efforts from the government, parents and equally important those of the student are required. (Gaquin,8)
Works cited
"U.S. education spending tops global list, study shows." Cbsnews.com, 2014. Web. 27 Jan 2014. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-education-spending-tops-global-list-study-shows/>.
"education | Ranking America." Rankingamerica.wordpress.com, 2013. Web. 27 Jan 2014. <http://rankingamerica.wordpress.com/tag/education/>.
"Log In - The New York Times." Nytimes.com, 2014. Web. 27 Jan 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13kristof.html>.
"High School Dropout Statistics | Statistic Brain." Statisticbrain.com, 2014. Web. 27 Jan 2014. <http://www.statisticbrain.com/high-school-dropout-statistics/>.
Gaquin, Deirdre A., and Gwenavere W. Dunn, eds. The Almanac of American Education 2013. Bernan Press, 2013.
