Public Sector Reformation through Education

America used to thrive on its education system and that is why it became one of the greatest nations in the world. Education is the backbone of our country, and we must give high priority to improve its current condition. Unfortunately, in the past couple of decades, the education system has been regressing. It has been on the decline and not as effective. The quality of education in a country has an influence on GDP growth, social cohesion and social well being in general. In order to improve the quality of education in the U.S., the following must be taken into consideration: the structure of our education system must be reanalyzed, we must compare and contrast our education system to systems of other countries with higher rankings, and finally, there must be a solution.

Many people know that the U.S. does not rank very high in education. You hear about how they are always trying to improve education, but they still fall short of where they strive to be. In Anu Partanen’s “Finland’s School Success, What Americans Keep Ignoring” she addresses this issue. She points out what Americans are doing wrong, what Finland is doing right, and how the U.S. can improve the education system in many ways.

In an intelligence-based economy, education is important to national prosperity and individual success. Huge achievement gaps and opportunities must shrink to non-existence, and every student must receive a well education that prepares them for college and careers in the world as it is today. Comparing the United States education system to other countries shows that the United States scored lower than nineteen other counties and education systems in reading in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment. Germany and Poland in particular are two countries that have now surpassed the United States. During the same study, scores showed that twenty-nine nations outperformed the United States by a large amount in mathematics, and in science, there have been twenty-two education systems that scored higher than the United States (Heitin).

As globalization continues to increase in today’s world, so is competition in the job market amongst students. With students in the US producing inferior results, many of these jobs are out of reach and difficult to get due to foreign competition. Ultimately, in order for students to be successful, the US must reconstruct its public education system.

Although often taken for granted, education is a privilege the U.S. offers to aid in achieving the “American Dream”, in which some define as opportunity and success. The U.S. proves being the “greatest country in the world” by leading other countries in military strength, political strength, plentiful resources and a powerful economy. In order to maintain a mighty military, the “Department of Defense deploys 1.8 million soldiers in active duty and owns 29,819,492 acres of land worldwide.” (military.com/military-trivia-facts.html) Economically, the U.S leads the United Nations in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with an annual production of $16,768.1

The United States is often referred to as the best country in the world in many areas. It may be, but far from it in education. Out of a total of thirty-four countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, it ranks just fourteenth in reading, seventeenth in science and twenty-fifth in math (Walker). Despite America's status as a country, America's education is failing because of the large emphasis on standardized education, and the flaws of the students, parents, and teachers. How to fix the education system remains to be a problem.

The siting of the SSTP in London, Ontario offers an excellent case to examine the ways in which Harris’s “common sense restructuring of public services, including the repeal of numerous land use planning requirements and the authorization of waste disposal sites without public input, work simultaneously to create new forms of white privilege and environmental racism in Southwestern Ontario” (Mascarenhas, 2012, p. 128). To meet the infrastructural needs of London’s rapidly growing population, London’s Planning Department proposed to build the SSTP along its southwest border. The plant is scheduled to be built by 2020 at a cost of approximately $80 million (DeBono, 2014). The story of the SSTP originated in 1996 when the City of London

The book The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way written by Amanda Ripley, tells about the various types of education systems from several of the countries that are in the lead for the most educated countries in the world. In Ripley’s book she does not just explain the importance of education but also how it affects the countries and how the students that are getting the education experience it. What led to the finding out of which country was the smartest country in the world was the Program for International Student Assessment or the PISA test. The PISA test is a test that was made to test a person 's ability to think critically, their communication skills, the ability to solve problems in math, reading and science, along with the students’ preparedness to do well in and be able to cooperate in society. Education is something that every country needs to move forward and gain powers in more ways than one so obviously in every country education should come first above all else for the young minds of the future. Author of The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way, Amanda Ripley, explains the issues concerning education and how the world is making huge leaps in education through many unbelievable factors that can affect a student 's education. She follows several completely different students that are from America and go off to other countries to go to school through a study abroad program. The American education system needs to follow what the

Nowadays the United States is not known for their educational system. Countries like South Korea, Japan, and Singapore have surpassed the United States buy large margins, in terms of educational success. While other countries are constantly revolutionising their education system, the United States’ education system has not changed in decades, leaving the U.S. unsuccessful. The U.S. continues to fall behind these same countries that are thriving. Due to the fact that the U.S. education system not developing as time went on, leaving them now with a multitude of flaws. The gap between the educated and non-educated, along with the length of how long students are in elementary and high school, are two consequential problems in the United States’ educational system that need to be addressed.

One of the many changes in the Age of Reform was the reformation of public education. The first schools were built for religious purposes, but during this reformation period, the reformers wanted better schools to make sure that the future voters would be informed. Also, these schools would help immigrants become part of the culture of American society. Massachusetts was the first state to set up public schools, schools paid by taxes, and this was also the first state to have compulsory education. This is where children had to go to school until a certain age. Reformers like Horace Mann changed many aspects to the schools in Massachusetts. He created colleges to train teachers, raised the salaries of the teachers, and he lengthened the school

country is not even ranked in the top ten countries for education? An adversary of this

The government could be so much more involved in social issues than they are right now. The case for more government is strengthened even more if it can be shown that some of our current problems are worsening and that we face significant new threats to our quality of life. When thinking about whether we need more government in this country ask yourself these questions. Is there room for improvement in government programs? Are any of our social and economic problems worsening? Are you facing new and serious threats to your wellbeing? If you answered yes to any of these questions this logically indicates the need for more government in the United States.

The United States prides itself on its public education system making it a core value of many families. The level of education a person has will influence their career achievements. Americans expect their public system of education to provide a solid curriculum. Most of the people in the United States place their trust in the public school system in which they support through taxes. This trust although is contradicted by the public system of education’s current shape. Much of the schools in the United States are either deteriorating, or failing all together. The drawbacks of public education create an unhealthy environment for student learning.

Public education in the United States is perhaps one of the most critical issues we face as a nation. Once pronouncing the United States as a “nation at risk”, the educational institution began to implement one reform strategy after another. In efforts to improve schooling for K-12 students, education reform has fiddled with class size, revised graduation requirements, and created standardized testing just to name a few. Unfortunately, traditional public schools are still failing to provide students with a quality education. This is disheartening as we learn that the United States lags behind in math and science compared to our international counterparts. It is safe to say that educational reform has spent billions of dollars over the

Have you ever wondered why our country is ranked low in comparison to other countries when it comes to education? Our country is said to be the best country in the world; yet when one takes a closer look on our system, defects are bound to be found. Take a look at our education for instance. We have the least productive schools in the nation. The truth is that the board of education has dumbed down the system due to a decrease in testing averages.