American Education
The pips and quirks of education have long been debated in the United States. In general, constituents from the left have argued for increased funding and less government entanglement while those from the right have pushed for greater privatization of schools. The two parties have persisted in their clashing over these issues and as a result have further disconcerted the country’s schooling system. For example, last week an Oklahoma congressional committee approved a highly controversial bill to halt state funding of the AP U.S. history course.
All eleven Republicans on the committee voted for the proposal while all 4 Democrats voted against it. Republican Representative Dan Fisher, the author of the bill, complained how the reworked course focused too much on the negative (yet deeply impactful) aspects of American history and failed to advance “American exceptionalism.” This type of legislation has popped up in other Republican states such as Georgia and South Carolina, but perhaps most notably in Colorado, where a conservative-led school board pushed to censor aspects of history relating to “civil disorder or social strife.” The Republican National Committee released a statement criticizing the AP curriculum as a “radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history.”
It seems as though Republicans want to slot the greatest events of American history into a 1984-esque setting, where they can pick and choose which events are taught. However, American history, like any country’s, is nowhere near perfect. It’s marred with discrimination, oppression and bad ideas. Looking back and criticizing America isn’t unpatriotic; in fact, it’s certainly more patriotic than neglecting those problems from the past. We have to be aware of those mistakes to make America better and continue American exceptionalism.
Looking back and criticizing America isn’t unpatriotic; in fact, it’s certainly more patriotic than neglecting those problems from the past.
Republicans have fought public education since Reagan’s governorship of California. Reagan slashed funding for K-12 education as well as for the University of California’s system. This forced tax hikes onto voters. Schools were under-funded. The buildings started crumbling. Classes became overcrowded. In the UC system, tuition nearly doubled. Outside of funding cuts, Reagan infamously put down every protest against the Vietnam War. He also orchestrated the removal of UC Berkeley’s president Clark Kerr.
The Democrats haven’t been perfect, either. Their biggest blunder was the initiation of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The program carries good intentions, but its implementation is subpar at best. The national standards are shaky and should be modified. The math curriculum confounds teachers and students alike. As a result, many states have already dropped the program.
It is clear that America is going through an educational crisis. American education levels are worse than many other countries’. Our country’s high school dropout rate is stupendous. College tuition continues to skyrocket.
A strong education program heralds a healthy society. Not only does it stress national roots-up programs, the system is one that provides millions of jobs across the country. Thomas Jefferson once said, “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people...they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
We must follow the Founding Fathers’ ideology of education. Cutting funds will not help because the action hurts schools’ administrations as well as children. Funding must, at the very least, stay constant. Public schools need the technology and resources to teach well.
But states need to go beyond making sure schools are well funded. Teachers have to be well-trained. Good teachers make good students; there are numerous studies showing the correlation between the quality of teachers and how well students do. Teachers should be monitored, by way of tests, to make sure they are teaching well. Teachers should not have their pay decreased. The average teacher makes around $56,000 annually; comparatively, a minimum-wage worker makes around $15,000. A teacher’s pay is lower than most colleges’ tuitions. Such a low salary drives away many potential teachers. And those who do teach are often forced to take second jobs if they want to survive. An increase in teacher wages would help alleviate our current education crisis.
In K-12 education, tenure policy must change. Tenure allows teachers security and gives them teaching leeway; teachers are kept or fired based on their teaching ability, not on political or personal issues. However, tenure has allowed bad teachers to keep their jobs. When schools attempt to release those inadequate teachers, larges amounts of money and time are spent running through long and costly procedures. As of now, elementary school teachers receive tenure after a mere two years. That’s certainly not long enough to gauge a teacher’s ability. Given, the standards to reach tenure are situational, but the two year minimum needs to be raised.
Educational reforms must extend beyond K-12 education. College tuition has risen faster than healthcare and the cost of living. Colleges have to stop wasteful spending on unnecessary administrative workers such a bureaucratic workers, stop funding of research projects that aren’t important, stop the constant raising of already high president wages. States should also increase funding so colleges don’t have to choose between necessary expenditures. An increase of college state funding will also allow more professor-led research projects. As professor Sadoway said during his Climate Action Day presentation, the earth-shattering breakthroughs and inventions have happened and will continue to happen at universities, not corporations. Professors require funding to carry out their world-changing research.
We must halt the slashing-and-burning of education funds. Kansas, New Jersey, Texas and Wisconsin are just a few states that have begun to make large cuts directed at education. America can’t accept that. It’s not the way to fix our education crisis.