THE PLIGHT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS

          THE PLIGHT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

  (Al Jazeera, Diana Reese, Pay Scale, Paul Monroe)

(Buzzle, Ningthoujam Sandyyarani, Graham Mumm, Sherman Dorn)

(United States Department of Education, James D. Anderson, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Did you know that it costs $8,626 to educate a kid in the United States public schools…..per year; hell I’m not even sure that my granddaughters are worth that…..they are cute though. I wonder what it cost to educate me, was I worth half that amount, would more money have given me a better education? To my way of thinking…..all pertinent questions now that I’ve entered my twilight years.

According to the information that I’ve gleaned through researching for this blog, the United States ranks right up there with the most expensive countries in the world to educate their kids…..could it be any other way! Switzerland, $9,748, and Austria at $8,863 are the only two countries that rank ahead of the U.S. What are we getting for our young people, are we, and they, getting that elusive BANG for our buck?

You know you read, you watch, and you listen, you try and unravel that big string ball that life seems to be, and at the end of the line you end up with little useable information to formulate an educated opinion on a subject. Public education is paramount to the strength of our society. Knowledge obtained through education and experience is not the same as wealth, or stature, or position, a large segment of a society must have an education in order for the country to prosper.

ACCREDITATION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS A TRICKY THING

Accreditation for secondary education is the bomb, you can’t operate without it, oh sure a school can, but I wouldn’t send my kids there, nor yours. Being accredited is important for a whole bunch of reasons, with one aspect of accreditation standing out from all the rest…..curriculum! The first years of a child’s education lays the groundwork and foundation for a student’s entire learning experience, and the last four readies him for the extended period that a higher education will need.

The federal government does not establish, or dictate criteria for secondary schools accreditation, that job is left to the individual states. There are regional territories that do set a loose set of accreditation rules, but the final sit-up is left to the states, it seems to be a question of state rights, and their sovereignty, unfortunately the last concern seems to be the elementary, or high school kids.

Historically the U.S. has had a demand for general skills rather than specific training/apprenticeships, thus there seems to be an increasing number of pupils that are opting to attend Charter Schools, or are home schooled. There also is a small number of high school aged students attending University-preparatory schools, all as alternative to public school systems.

In 1892, in response to the many competing academic philosophies being promoted at the time, a working group of educators, known as the Committee of Ten was established by the National Education Association. This committee recommended twelve years of instruction, consisting of eight years of elementary education followed by four years of high school.

At the start of the 20^th century it was common for high schools to have entrance examinations which restricted entrance to fewer than 5% of the population in preparation for college. Most youngsters were expected to be ready for a job or a family after junior high school. The first public secondary schools started around 1910, and were the wealthier areas of similar income levels.

Between 1910 and 1940 there was a high school movement in the United States resulting in rapidly increasing high school enrollment and graduation, mainly due to the building of new high schools, and the practical curriculum based on gaining skills for life rather than for college. During this same time there was a shift towards local decision making by established school districts, and a policy of easy and open enrollment.

This forward thinking resulted in an education boom, and by the 1950’s the comprehensive high school became common, which were designed to give a free education to any student who chose to stay in school for 12 years to get a diploma with a minimal grade point average, and in 1954 the Supreme Court made desegregation of elementary and high schools mandatory.

The compulsory education was established in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1852, and spread throughout the U.S. until Mississippi in 1917 became the last state to embrace the idea. Compulsory education was not a new idea, and had been in place for two hundred years in Europe.

EVERYTHINGS A SCHEME WITH THE UNITED STATES

It didn’t start out that way, people have to work their way into a situation, have to understand that every situation devised by man has imperfections that can be taken advantage of. I live in Wisconsin, where our educational system is proclaimed to be second to none. However the speaker of this proclamation is a school employee…..always.

There are only two countries where a per capita costs to educate their kids is higher, Switzerland and Austria. There are four basic areas where high school kids need to have before they are capable of going out into the world, and have the abilities necessary to compete in the 21^st century, they are, and where the United States ranks;

World Problem Solving, Korea is number one, and the United States is 29^th.

World Science Performance, Finland is number one, the United States ranks 22^nd.

World Reading Performance, Finland again is number one, the United States is 18^th.

World Math Performance, Finland is number one, the U.S. ranks 28^th.

So you ask “what’s the scheme,” well, let me see, the average High School teacher can make as much as $45,160, an Elementary School teacher, $41,071, a Middle School teacher, $42,678, a Special Ed teacher, $41,860, Special Education teacher, (secondary) $46,341.

Of course there’s the cost per capita of our kids for to educate them, as I mentioned, the cost is $8,626 and only Switzerland and Austria are costlier. The average (weighted average) to educate those cute little chumlies of ours, world-wide is $5,963.67, and this information comes from Nation Master. I don’t usually refer to my sources, but in this case, I thought it was germane.

We are, as a nation, as a species, entering troubled times; the problem is that we need to…..once again get our collective butts involved with what’s going on in our society. If the statistics that make up the facts that I’ve used for this blog are correct, and I have no reason to question them, we’ll be needing an overhaul in our educational system…..right away.

There are high schools in American right now that are working under sanctions from their state school systems because they’ve lost their accreditation…..that’s serious, it means they are teaching at a sub-standard level…..and have either lost some of, or all of their state and federal financial aid.

To my way of thinking, home school isn’t the way to combat the problem that we, as citizens of the country face, it’s more a cop-out. Charter Schools, private schools seem to be for the well to do, and Parochial, although they’ve been around for centuries have always left me thinking that their curriculum was narrow minded, and didn’t embrace the life that most of us are destined to live.

There is still time, the stakes are super high, are we going to…..as a nation, going to maintain our past lofty position in the world of play.  When I refer to the world of play I’m talking about industry, manufacturing, and jobs in the 21^st century. Our ranking in the big four basics (problem solving, reading, math, and the sciences) are each based on a world-wide poll. This poll has nothing to hide, and nothing to gain…..it just spits out findings for its readers to contemplate.

Are we entering into a new era in our evolution, where we recede backwards to an earlier time, a kind of regression…..God I hope not, I wouldn’t want to live in a world where I was one of the intellects.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!