The State of American Public Education System - Essay Example

of the American Public Education System 30th November The of American Public Education System The American public education system was developed in the 19th century to improve the quality of education nationwide. The states and the local school districts are held responsible to ensure that the schools are financed and the students are equipped with quality education impacting their individualism and society. Government authorities prioritized the educational reforms and involved in providing high academic standards and education of poor and needy promising to “leave no child behind”. However, the decentralization makes it difficult to deal issues pertaining to school reforms (William J. Reese, 2). The current public educational system is piled up with issues not just pertaining to classrooms or corridors but resulting in the failure of American public education system. This failure cannot be made accountable to the performance of the students but the entire system that is responsible for the declining performance. (John Hood, Volume: 43). Many factors were being considered to hinder the public education like money or funds, poverty, class size, teachers, salaries of teachers, student’s performance and teachers unions etc. (Jay P. Greene, James Q Wilson, 3) increasing the rate of drop outs and unqualified students for future. Even today certain percent of unskilled and drop out students exists which increases the relocation of more qualified professionals from outside the country. Considering the growing competition parents coming from a middle or higher class prefer to educate their children in private funding institutions that provide high standards of education while vast numbers of lower class children attend public schools. Funds: People assume that lack of funds has resulted in failure of public educational system which is a myth. Funding the public institutions is been doubled since 1965, while very little amount is utilized to improve the public education system and most of which is used for education of disabled children, nutrition programs, transportation etc. Students with special needs are provided with special transportation and equipment which utilizes certain percent of funds while improved nutritional programs like arrangements of breakfast or lunch increased the expenditure to an extent, added to these issues the “no child left behind” policy is yet to be met (Amy Richards, 24th October 2011). Teachers and Unions: Teachers have their unions to support and protect them no matter how incompetent they are while their “tenure” guarantees the job safety until retirement without considering their performance. They are given salaries with no rewards of excellence and are not penalized for their poor performance due to which every teacher performs the same (B. Awesome, 30th May 2011). Training needs to be provided to those under performing teachers to improve their ability to teach. Teachers who lack to improve their performance levels even after rigorous training should be removed while qualified and hardworking teachers can bring reform in the public education system to certain extent should be provided with a performance based wages and incentives. Society Influences: Many students who tend to drop out of high schools are not skilled enough to work in a technologically advanced workplace. Those who have dropped out of high school earn less salary than students who graduated from high school. Dropped out students usually live in poverty and depend upon welfare (Jay P. Greene, James Q Wilson, 95). Societal influences like poverty and bad parenting also results in poor performance. Successful public schools are in the area where the rich and wealthy reside, while worst or unsuccessful public schools belong to the areas where poor families live (Valerie Strauss, Washington Post). Children dealing with poverty can afford to attend these unsuccessful schools where they are not provided with proper resources. Class Size: Some believe that the number of students in a class (class size) of public education system ranging anywhere from 30 – 35 would make it difficult for the teacher: student ratio. According to the NCES report the ratio of 15:1 in any private school leads to better qualified students. However, some critics do not agree to the point that size of a class matters. Some surveys done in past resulted in improving the students efficiency especially when the student belonged to a small class size (Peg Tyre, Salon, 6th August 2011). Bureaucratic system: Bureaucracy at every level involves in laying down policies, rules and regulations ultimately leading to lack of control or authority. The federal and state governments’ differences result in reduction of funds to poorly performing schools that leads to making the schools even worse due to inadequate resources. In order to decrease it decentralization control to site level is required known as site-based management. School of Choice: Every parent has the freedom to select their school of choice based on the quality and children’s requirements. It is believed to reform the public education system by forcing it to compete with other schools thereby improving their standards. Many of the enrollment options are available like charter schools, educational vouchers and tax deductions. Charter schools are schools formed by the charter (parent, community or businesses) that receive public money and do not charge for tuitions. Educational vouchers are the funds provided for child tuition at public or private schools. These vouchers allow the parents to utilize the money by the city, state or federal government to pay for their child’s education. Some parents support these vouchers while others oppose them on the ground that these vouchers use the money that supports the public education. The tax deductions or credits allow the families to get the tax credited upon the costs incurred due to tuition, education, books and transportation etc. Performance Tests: These tests are conducted to ensure that the students attained the required skills and knowledge. They are provided at different grades from elementary to secondary schools which are not favored by some critics even though they are helpful in acknowledging the failure of the public education. Recent tests conducted in mathematics and science revealed that United States stood at a lower level when compared with the students from other countries. Reforming the Public Education System: 1. There is minimum influence of class size on the overall public education but small improvements can lead to major gain. It is important to maintain the teacher-student ratio. 2. Funds by the states should be equally distributed in the districts (poor and rich) in order to provide adequate education to all the children and prevent discrimination. 3. Training the teachers to improve their teaching abilities and further improve the skills of students is necessary. Principals and teachers should undergo training in order to maintain the reputation of the school and improve its overall performance. 4. Better salaries to the teachers along with provision of incentives recognizing their abilities would help the teachers to motivate themselves and provide better help to the students. References 1. Robert J. Franciosi, "The rise and fall of American public schools: the political economy of public education in the twentieth century", 2004, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=8XUh4SnqLrYC 2. Irving H. Buchen, "The future of the American school system", 2004, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=HNtommYsZlMC 3. William J. Reese, "America's Public Schools: From the Common School to "No Child Left Behind"", 2011, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=wKNvSGd3zbcC 4. Participant Media, Karl Weber, "Waiting for "Superman": How We Can Save America's Failing Public Schools", 2010, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=I3B6ThyRfdUC 5. Jay P. Greene, James Q Wilson, "Education Myths: What Special Interest Groups Want You to Believe About Our Schools--and Why It Isn't So", 2006, http://books.google.com/books?id=vX2Bte9rTWMC 6. Wikinut, "America's Failing Public Education System--Problems", http://news.wikinut.com/America-s-Failing-Public-Education-System-Problems/3me3_67w/ 7. Deeptha Thattai, "A History of Public Education in the United States", http://www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/2001-11/PublicEducationInTheUnitedStates.html 8. Richard Rothstein, "The Myth of Public School Failure", http://prospect.org/article/myth-public-school-failure 9. "Criticism of Public Education - Inequality of Opportunity, Highly Bureaucratic Systems, Achievement-Based Outcomes, School Choice, Reform after Reform", http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2341/Public-Education-Criticism.html Read More