The Importance Of Education On Education

The United States faces situations such as “spend[ing] more money per student on secondary and postsecondary education than almost any other country in the world” and yet not having any

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.

Parents send their kids to school thinking that America has the best school in the world. They think wrong. Out of all the countries in the world, we aren't first place in any educational subject. We rank 14th in education, ranks 2nd in ignorance to social statistics (chart shown on image to the right) , 24th in literacy, 17th in educational performance and ranks 11th in fourth grade math.

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 considered to be one of the biggest powerhouses in the world, but when it comes to education in the U.S, we’re consider to be average. How is it that other nations who aren't as powerful as the U.S, be ahead us in education? Examples of these nations are South Korea, Finland, and Poland. Amanda Ripley sought to find an answer to this question.

Education is one of the most important assets a country can offer in terms of the future. Education is what drives technical advances and helps form the general structure of the country. As the United States’ monetary deficit grows, one may forget about the pending problems in education. These problems in education may led to the downfall of the once great global powerhouse the United States once was.

The United States spends more money on education each year than any other country in the world, yet the education system is not thriving. Three decades ago, America was the leader in the quality of high school diplomas, yet, students in the U.S. rate 31st in math literacy and 23rd in science in comparison to the rest of the world. (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) The country that is famous for being the most advanced and innovative country in the world is yielding a generation that is falling behind in the global education race. Public K-12 education is worsening simultaneously with the growing competitiveness of universities. Part of the problem is that teachers are not being paid sufficiently, and many find themselves being laid off. College is getting exponentially more expensive each year. These are only a couple of the issues that the american education system faces today, but the list carries on.

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.

Especially, if it the betters the lives of American citizens lives. The USA has no legal protection for free college tuition. The United States is a developed country with the means to offer this innate right to its citizens. Most of Europe, countries like Spain, Sweden, and Germany, as explained by Higher Education Research Institution, “guarantees the right to education” (Brennan). This has affected their economy, provided relentless opportunities and advantages such as self-sufficient citizens who bring investment and entrepreneurship opportunities (Brennan). Currently in the United States, Kindergarten through 12th grade, or equivalent to 18 years old, is an innate right in America. ( ) Once these people meet the age of 18 or 12th grade, Americans are no longer provided a free education. It is simply unjust and creates a clear transparency of class division in the United States. The system permits the wealthy to pursue a college education while the impoverished are kept in a continuous, poverty cycle. This conundrum burdens the affluent citizen’s taxes, which creates hostility between the wealthy and impoverished

America’s education system has recently been a concern for many people. A recent international test “shows the U.S. trailing behind educational powerhouses like Korea and Finland.” (The Atlantic) In addition, the U.S. was 26th out of the 34 countries who took the International Student Exam; considering the U.S. has the world’s largest economy, this rank is abysmal. If the U.S. wants to improve their education rankings, they are going to have to look at countries who are currently seeking success. Two of those countries, Finland and Korea, approach education quite differently than the U.S; nevertheless, their methods seem to be working for them.

states in a possibility towards this issue is that “But maybe the U.S. spends more because it needs to spend more? The U.S. has more inequality and more poor people than those countries. Just as some countries naturally need to spend more on health care than others, the U.S. might naturally need more education”(Smith). This reason could be why education cost so much and how we must change that. In America, it is irrationally unfair for the people who have their shoes shined when walking. If one wants a bright future, one must start out small and work their way up, and be better than greedy

“A strong, educated middle class is what made the America the greatest country in the world.”-Lincoln Chafee. Does Rhode Island Senator Chafee have his facts straight? Is the United States truly a highly educated country, in comparison to the other countries? Old and new studies have shown that the United States is lower than many other European and Asian countries. An impetus for this is that the actual spending between the United states and other countries, more specifically the top two, Finland and South Korea, is at a massive difference. One major difference in spending is that the U.S is one of the few countries that fund athletics and clubs. How athletic and club funding distracts from education. Alternatives that U.S states could take to cut down funding on unneeded things and focus more on education.

At the dawn of the twentieth-century, the movement that made a high school diploma widely available for every child in the United States, regardless of the income of their family, solidified America’s place as the home of the most educated workforce in the world, and helped to drive decades of economic prosperity. Now, nearly one-hundred years have passed, and other countries around the globe are catching up. In some cases, foreign nations have even surpassed the United States by providing tuition-free higher education for all.

Our nation is LAGGING in academics compared to other nations, such as South Korea, Finland, and Japan. According to Emmeline Zhao (2012), the students of the United States scored lower on academic tests compared to other countries. However, the United States is not the worst performing nation. Its academic growth is lacking (Zhao, 2012).

Why is education lacking in the USA, when it is one of the wealthiest countries in the world? If there is enough money in the USA, shouldn’t there be the means for a higher level education? Yes there is, but we do not use the means the correct way. The USA provides so much material for an easy-understanding education, that students never understand what the value of learning is. The USA has worked with two systems first using open classroom then a bureaucratic system. An open classroom is a more democratic system that focuses more on values, discipline, and profitable skills whereas bureaucratic is a system of intelligence and achievement. Overtime, neither bureaucratic and open classroom (non-bureaucratic) has been enough to improve education,