Educational institutions are charged with imparting on society the knowledge base and skill sets that will allow graduates to advance careers, promote empowerment, and generally improve society overall. Because of the benefits to the society as a whole, many believe that education is one of the primary responsibilities of the state to provide, next to providing for the public defense. Others believe that education should be as free of governmental influences as possible. Thereupon, there is great debate centering on which organizational model will lead to the greatest results for students and society overall, and how such a model can be maintained once it has been established.
The current state of the American educational system is nearly a governmental monopoly. It is orchestrated with a top down approach. That is, students are taught a narrow curriculum directed to performing well on standardized tests. The thought is everyone receives a uniform, basic instruction. Students who do not meet standards must not be advanced until they have acquired the essential knowledge that has been selected by a school board, educational board, teacher unions, etc. By setting the standards, these governmental and quasi-governmental institutions control what knowledge is important and which knowledge can be discarded as unimportant; they control what people learn and what they don’t. In other words, the thoughts, knowledge, and essence of who we are as individuals is predetermined.
Now, to run this government controlled system, tax money is needed. Since all citizens within particular school district boundaries are required to pay taxes, schools are insured to have the funding they need. However, this tax money is not doled out equally. Schools that meet the standards are eligible for more funding than those who don’t meet the criteria set before them by politicians and professional educators. Thus, while some schools will have resources required, other schools will be in a deficit. With such a disparagement between schools, there are only two solutions, raises taxes so that all schools can have enough funding or close those schools which are not meeting the standards and thus switch the burden to more successful schools. Which of these two solutions is best to meet the challenges of the educational system, I shall now explain.
One of the largest concerns about schools is that they don’t have enough money and resources to perform the job of educating effectively. This lack of money is why many see that raising taxes is the only solution to supporting the educational system. However, if this was the case, then children from past generations should have been at a disadvantage; the amount spent per child has drastically risen over the years, while the performance of each generation has steadily declined. Likewise, many other industrialized countries spend less per pupil for education yet yielding higher scores than American students. Hence, while it is natural to equate money spent with quality, there are other problems that inhibit the success of students other than not having adequate funding for the schools.
Clearly the problem of an under performing educational system cannot be solely blamed for lack of money and resources. Students must have a challenging curriculum, not simply directed by standardized learning. Teachers must be held responsible for the performance in the classroom, and at the same time, the authority of classroom management must remain in the classroom, with the teacher. Discipline or lack thereof, in the classroom is as big a factor to the efficiency of a child’s learning as having the correct resources for learning. Finally, a great deal of the difficulties in the American educational system can be traced to a mentality that wishes for more of the same failed policies. If the educational system is already failing to teach our children, why would any rational individual wish to expand such a program? Is this what we call ‘progress'?
The correct solution to improving education is a two-fold approach. First, do away with standardized testing. A more independent learning approach is needed to prepare students for the vast array of challenges in the world. To accomplish that task, a decentralization of power away from governmentally controlled educational boards, school boards, teacher unions, etc. must take place. The public must control the investment in the public, not the politicians. Standards must be set by the community in which the school resides, not by bureaucrats who have no link to the success or failure of a particular school. Second, add competition to the educational model. Schools that cannot meet the standards that the community has set forth should be done away with, and the best way to find out which schools are not meeting the standards is to let people choose between which schools they wish to attend. Vouchers let a person vote with their money. By observing where the money is flowing, it will soon become apparent which schools are considered valuable and which are not. Consequently, like most things, when Education is freed of government influence, the problem starts to resolve itself.
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