Public Education Reform: A Case Study

There are many problems in the American public education system today. Some of those include the quality of teachers, who have no real passion for the job, and are only allowed to remain in the position because of tenure privileges. Another issue is the state budgets that are allowed for public schools, with some states investing billions of dollars, and others prioritizing it lower on the list. In hot debate today is standardized testing, and the negative effect that it has on high school education, with the limits it places on teachers and what they have time to teach in the classrooms.

Education is the foundation to secure an individual in having a better future and a successful career in life. Public education primarily falls upon the state and local government to take charge of, which get divided up into local school districts that are managed by school boards. School boards are “ an elected body corporate which manages delegated powers in regards to the deliver of education service within a defined territory (Duhaime’s Law Dictionary)”. Each state “has its own department of education and laws regulating finance, the hiring of school personnel, student attendance, and curriculum (Corsi-Bunker, Antonella).

Should public schooling be redefined? Public schooling will always be public schooling, but we should acknowledge the way we attend school now a days.

Why is government necessary? In the words of Alexander Hamilton, “Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint” (Federalist No. 15 137). Men have a sin nature and must have an authority set in place to keep them from falling into anarchy. America has federal and state governments with a system of checks and balances for exactly this reason, but one sector of the government has overstepped the bounds that were set for it in this country’s infancy. In order to answer the question of whether more power should be put into the hands of the federal or state government, three things must be considered: the history of state’s rights in America, the differing types of government, and the constitution itself.

Their eyes met from across the room, and any student paying close enough attention could see the loathing in the teacher’s eyes as the principal walks into the room for the bi-semester teacher evaluation. In the blink of an eye the teacher returns her focus back on the students, but the obvious exchange between the two individuals makes those of us in the classroom that understand the source of the icy gaze extremely uncomfortable. My teacher hates the principal with a passion. Ever since the principal assumed control of the school three years prior to this particular evaluation, she terrorized my band director. Through micromanaging, criticizing relentlessly, organizing meetings incessantly, and sabotaging schedules, my principal fostered a hate from not only my band director, but also from the majority of teachers in my high school. The attitude and leadership techniques utilized by my former principal directly contradicts current theories of the scholarly community on how to effectively lead a school.

Furthermore too much government involvement could lead to people depending on the government for money instead of getting a job. This is very true today for people who get health care and other things. They think that they can take more and more money

In 1630, John Winthrop dreamt that America was a “City on the Hill”, predestined for preeminence. In 1776, the American Colonies proclaimed independence with the affirmation that all men are equal, free, and blessed with the sacred rights to life, liberty, and happiness. These uniquely American ideals ideals characterized the young democracy in contrast to the oppressive monarchies of Europe. European citizens saw the correlation between America’s greatness and its democratic principles. The liberties that America furnished to all men, regardless of status, gave citizens pride in their nation and drew envy from constituents of tyrannical monarchies. The notions of equality and freedom, however, did not extend to all of America’s population;

There are several people amongst the cataclysm we call the United States of America, and there have been many in the past that have been very influential in our government and how it should be ran, such as our founding fathers. One man, Alexander Hamilton was a very influential man in the beginnings of our nation and its principles. One of his quotes, "Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint." This quote really explains how I feel the government is participating in the role of our nation. The government is simple there to guide and protect, as well as maintain order, along with being the strong hold of the nation, almost like the big

I personally believe that government is involved too much into health and human services. When I see the percentage of the funds that go into health and human services it’s nice to see that the government recognizes the importance of keeping its citizens healthy and taking action to provide citizens with Medicaid and Medicare. The issue I have is the complexity and aggravation it causes the majority when they go a little to overboard. In my opinion its perfect when the government focuses on significant issues that affect the masses that helps everyone. In the past it would have been acceptable for state and local government to direct a huge portion of its funds into dealing with hookworm, an infection that in places like Georgia affected a total of 51.7 percent of people. This was a disease that affected everyone no matter what social status or life choices you had, in that time period. It was effective that they completed public work projects and worked on providing everyone with sanitary conditions and hospitals.

The United States government was created by the founding fathers to allow men to be free, but to also have a governmental system that protects that freedom as well. The United States government is problematic. It goes above and beyond the necessity and, because of this, is dysfunctional at best. The government today has gone beyond protecting the rights of American citizens. It has become a large entity that is wholly useless. The government of the United States is too large, therefore, this creates many problems with things like governmental overreach and extreme inefficiency. A smaller government would be more functional and could return to a more efficient, and likely constitutional basis of existence. It may be difficult to move to a smaller government if the United States cannot figure out a good way to do this.

When you have the government that constantly growing it will always lead to more spending practices. You need money to have more agencies, regulations, hiring officials, which also leads to having the government being more involved in your life. Although involvement can be argued for, it will definitely give increased chance for them to overreaches it boundary if it keep growing. We are having less privacy, regulations to personal choices, and [BLBALBLA]. At the current state of America, I really don’t see more reason to keep growing the government unless some type of major field breakthrough comes up like human augmentations or advance

Government efficacy to perform all of its current functions, and programs requires as large of a government as we have at present. The fact of the matter is that the federal government has overstepped its boundaries and has taken up tasks that are not meant for the government, but for the people. Issues such as health care, public education, and social security are prime examples of the government taking over tasks that are not innately for the government, but each citizen's responsibility. Many people do not see a problem with this, but there are several flaws that come with this including the requirement of a larger federal government, decreased individual freedom, and increased deficit, increased deficit spending, and increased taxes.

Since 1983 public education has been an issue in America. The system has been constantly changing every year with reforms. This constant change has been driven by the American people’s perception that education has declined and something should be done about it. First there was an increased emphasis on basic skills, making school years longer and more graduation requirements. Second, many began focusing on increasing teachers professionalism. Third, they began restructuring many things such as how the schools were organized and how the school day was structured etc. Now today the most of the American people believe that not enough money is given to public schooling. They associate academic improvement with the money the school is funded.

Public education is under funded, especially in the state of Alabama. I attended public school in the state of Alabama so I experienced it first hand. Low funds for the arts department and many of the science experiments are just some of the areas that are affected by the low funding. In the 2012-2013 school years, Alabama had over 744,637 students enrolled in a total of 1,637 schools. Alabama’s school funding has gone down 14% since 2008. Many school systems have to spend additional money from local revenue on top of what the state provides because it is not enough. Low funding in Alabama is a problem that could be fixed through a lottery system and a weighted school system.

Education reform is a topic that every student, parent and teacher should be interested in because it effects everyone in the community. Many different approaches to education reform have been tried, and even though they seem to work for the time being, there are always more improvements that need to be made. One of the best ideas that has been discussed in the most recent years is getting the parents and students more involved in the actual reform process. Many school administrators see a problem with involving students, even though they are the ones most affected by the changes within schools. Student’s opinions should be taken into consideration because they are the ones who see what happens inside the school and within the classroom, and are the most affected by it. Involving parents and students in the reform of their schools will improve the quality of education, improve parent and teacher relationships and reduce parent and student complaints.