Force-feeding children a public education hasn’t achieved anything.
American students can’t keep up with the students in other countries, and the average U.S. fourth grader doesn’t even possess the most basic proficiency in common school subjects.
This can be solved by identifying the problems. To start, here are the top 5 reasons why public schools are failing.
- No Accountability
The public education system is very seldom held accountable for the undereducated students it churns out. Schools have the ability to flat out ignore parents and anyone else they do not receive financial support from. And if a school is rifled with bad teachers, what happens? Absolutely nothing. The teachers keep their job and the public school stays in business. No one wastes time on the concept of customer satisfaction. After all, the customers are just uneducated kids who won’t realize they are getting a raw deal until they enter college or the workforce and find that they can’t keep up. Since 1960, the amount spent per pupil has more than tripled after dollars have been adjusted for inflation, yet the education our children are subjected to is not three times better.
- Wasted Funds
In spite of higher-than-average per-pupil costs, public educated students in the U.S. are seriously lagging behind public-educated students in other countries. According to the Department of Education, public schools receive an average of $9,969 per pupil-twice the average amount spent per student at private and charter schools. Some areas, like the District of Columbia, spend in excess of $12,000 per public educated pupil. Those who run schools have no personal risk involvement and no incentive to cut costs or increase revenues. In fact, when a school does not do well or spends all of its money, more often than not that school receives even more funding. Without a dose of public outrage, the funds are almost definitely to be wasted.
- Political Agendas
Public schools do not necessarily answer to parents, but they do need to heed the words of politicians and school boards-all of whom have their own political agendas. It would not be an exaggeration to say that these agendas are weakening the entire system. Schools and teachers are commonly forced to deal with supposedly brilliant education plans thought up by state judiciaries, legislatures, and bureaucracies. The taxpayers are then expected to flip the bill to put the plans into motion. For this reason alone, a separation of school and state may be beneficial. By shutting out the interfering politicians and giving the power to the parents and teachers, true accountability may actually come about.
- One Size Doesn’t Fit All
There is no one size fits all prescription for education, yet that is exactly what most students receive in a public school. Gifted students often take similar classes as students who need extra help. In rural areas, there are very rarely AP courses or other academic options that will allow students to excel. Good teachers aren’t given a chance to spread their wings because they are forced to follow the plans that have been laid out before them. And in the end, it is the children and our society that suffers from the one size fits all teaching style.
- NCLB
The No Child Left Behind Act was created to ‘fix’ our public schools, but in fact, has done more to damage the system than correct it. Under this law, extreme importance is placed on test scores and punitive action. What’s worse perhaps is that school districts have been forced to train students for NCLB tests versus providing them the education they deserve. And while the House Education Committee pertains to the act as ‘unfair’, and there is virtually no evidence that NCLB has done anything favorable since its inception, the law is up for renewal this fall. Chances are more funding-money that could be used to actually enhance the system-will be thrown at the law in a last ditch effort to make it work. But, as history has taught us (or should have taught us), laws should be based on logic versus the amount of funding that can be rustled up.