When it comes to education, let's get this on the table right off the bat: The reason we rank behind some countries is because ALL American kids go to school, not just the best and the brightest, as is the case in some countries. Secondly, because of our freedoms, our kids have lots of reasons not to care about their education. Drugs, television, video games and other technology, as well as having parents who don't care or can't stay on their kids to do their work as well as an assortment of many other things play a large part.
Also, our schools put one thing in front of everything else: money. Our schools now bend over backwards to keep kids in school. In my 20 years as a teacher, I can't remember a student being expelled for more than three days. Now we place them in alternative schools, which waters down their education.
If a student has a baby (I've had three thus year so far that I know of. I'm sure there are others who have already had children), and struggles to make it to school because their duties as a parent, we cater to them by creating another type of alternative school where they can come and take their core classes and attend school maybe four hours a day (it differs). This further waters down an education. All so our school districts can keep their attendance numbers up, because dropouts and lower attendance means less federal dollars coming in.
Then, of course, we have systems in lace for kids who skip on a regular basis or are too slow to be able to pass a class with any rigor whatsoever. I have just over 110 students. Of those, I have seven who have over 50 absences. But guess what? If they go to attendance school, they can make up those absences. This further waters down the system.
Kids who can't pass the class? They can take "credit by exam" and magically pass after not learning diddly squat in my class. It happens a lot. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a kid graduate and wonder "how the heck did he get a diploma." Once again, watering down the system in the name of money.
You want to know what's the most important thing we do for our students in the minds of our administration? Make sure kids are fed. This is at a high school. We were in the middle of sending students home last year due to a sever snow storm and our administration waited until after lunch to make sure students got to eat.
When your priorities are out of whack, you're going to end up with a broken education system like ours. And it's not due too little funding, it's due to districts administrators not wanting to lose the money they have coming in from the Feds. And speaking of district administrators, you ought to see how many people work in the admin buildings at some districts. It's astronomical how much money is being poured into administration for people who don't even teach.
Thanks for the reply, Superpokes,
I agree with just about everything you wrote, except your first point. I don't think that is a reason why the U.S. ranks lower than many major countries. Of the major countries, I believe they have full enrollment. I don't think there are many Polish, Swiss, Japanese, or S. Korean children that never enroll in school, though I could be wrong. That applies more to countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but those countries don't rank above the U.S. anyways, or even come close.
But, I agree, education spending is very inefficient, just like the majority of the spending of government (and I do get the contradictory nature of me wanting MORE money for the government to spend poorly). And the systems put into place to prevent students from falling to the wayside are poorly implemented and result in an extremely watered down and rudimentary education, and it results in a high school diploma meaning far less than it used to.
And yes, if more money is pumped into the school, will that money be spent well? In some ways, sure. Will some of it go too unneeded administration that make six figures? Absolutely. I hate to be a defeatist, but government inefficiency seems a fact of life. Are there any major countries in the world with more than, oh, 20 million people (let alone 300 million +) that have very small, limited and fiscally conservative governments? I truly don't know. I would guess if they do, they don't spend billions or trillions of dollars funding wars that have no tangible goal or end game. The trillions of dollars spent in Iraq and Afghanistan, with what positive results there or here? That's inefficient too. And if the two evils are inefficient education spending and inefficient military spending, I know which one I'd prefer.
But, while politicians figure out ways to consolidate districts, to tighten budgets, and eliminate unneeded spending, it is the current students who are the collateral damage, while they sit in substandard facilities, have a lack of desks (something I am dealing with currently), a lack of textbooks (another current problem in my district), and have under qualified teachers teaching them (at least in my state, where teachers are moving out as quick as they can).
Early childhood education is the major one, to me. By the time they are 12 or 13, it is too late for many students, there is no switch you can flip, they've already made the mental decision that school isn't for them, won't result in any rewards further down the road, etc...mThey have so many gaps already, it's impossible for secondary teachers to catch them up in one semester or school year. And it takes a lot of self-determination to improve, something that is hard to generate in young people, especially when they are sitting in classes with 30 other students and one teacher. Or as you said, have tons of other stimuli to occupy their time besides school work.
Kids that grow up in a poverty stricken environment, with an undereducated single parent, already have the deck stacked against them. Are their kids who can break out of this and be extremely successful, with hard work? Of course. There are a lot of examples. But, there are many who won't, and are going to do nothing to perpetuate the system and let it grow and grow. Would diverting some defense spending to education or raising education funding by 5 or 10% fix all of these problems? Of course not. Will it allow more children to escape the poverty cycle, and put forward more productive citizens into society. I believe so. Is that worth the money? That's what is up for debate.
As an aside, I teach in Oklahoma and I've been a teacher for four years, and I have had a handful of students suspended for more than 3 days. A few for drug possession, a few for severe fights, one for striking a teacher.
