The Importance Of Free Education

There was a time when America’s education system was top-notch according to the culture and society. With time, a myriad of things has changed, but unfortunately what has not evolved is the American education system. The country is still following a system which was not designed for the current global economic climate. Equality, as positive as it sounds is not as sufficient when it comes to education. The system treats students equally yet expect a similar culmination and outcome. Every child has his individuality and distinct abilities; one cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Conversely, a few of the prominent reasons why the education system is failing are overcrowded schools, the rise of technology, and following the same old school hours.

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.

The United States is one of the best country in many areas such as technology and health care or education, but compared with other develop nations, the united states education system is still behind many country including United Kingdom, Japan, China. America’s standards of education are far lower than several other countries, because the American public education systems is less effective, students are lack of motivation to learn. According to Michael Moore, in the book Idiot Nation, and John Taylor Gatto in Against School, they argue that the education system in the United States is deeply flawed. America’s schools having a poor curriculum, many facilities are in bad conditions and lack of resources that students need to learn. The

America is a country that currently spends more money on public education per student than any other nation in the world; nevertheless, these good intensions have achieved only slight positive outcomes. For instance, in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), an authoritative test used to measure the education levels of students from 53 countries, American students ranked 12th in reading, 17th in science, and 26th in math. No doubt, a question like this one has been argued for decades “ what exactly is happening in foreign countries that allows them to out-pass America in terms of academics?” The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way is an illuminating book by Amanda

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.

College is a head turner, eye catcher, and attention grabber. From making the decision to even attend to selecting the perfect school, the whole experience turns out to be incredibly stressful and multiple aspects go into what seems simple at first glance. The cost of attending college is on the rise. Parents and students anxiously await scholarship letters to help with these rising costs of education. State schools usually offer a financial advantage, but a new “law” is being proposed - free in-state college tuition to those students with a 3.5 GPA or higher. Few benefits are available and numerous disadvantages are present when it comes to this recently produced regulation. A few negative factors in this situation will be covered and the explanations will go into depth to prove that this idea is too good to be true. Even though the conception of free college is enticing, the cons outweigh the pros.

In the United States of America, College education should be universal and free for all students. According to the department of education, the statics show that at least $60,000 graduate college student will be in debt after coming out of college, and if these college graduate attended an Ivy League even more will increase up to up ward of $100,000 in more debt even before these students get their first job.

In the fall of 2017 about 3.6 million students were expected to graduate from high school in the United States. In the same year, 20.4 million adults in the United States were expected to attend an american college or university (NCES fast facts tool). Almost five times the amount of students expected to graduate high school were attending a source of higher education. From these statistics I came to the understanding that there are many people who don’t go to college right after high school or who are going back to college after a break. A big reason behind taking some time between highschool to college or not going at all can be due to the high price for higher education, “For the 2015–16 academic year, the average annual price for undergraduate tuition, fees, room, and board was $16,757 at public institutions, $43,065 at private nonprofit institutions” (NCES fast facts tool). For some this may not be difficult to afford, however the national average income for Americans was $43,642.15 in that same year (2016)(Sue Kunkel). Consider a family of five who makes the national average of $48,640, trying to put three kids through college at the same time. It would be difficult to successfully put all three kids through unless they were given scholarships or financial aid. I think that it is misguiding to reward only successful high schoolers with higher education opportunities because then we aren’t making education a priority

In 1998, more than 13 million children (19 percent of all children) under age eighteen lived in families with incomes below the official poverty threshold. Although children age eighteen and under represent 26 percent of the United States population, they comprise nearly 40 percent of the poverty population. Despite a steady decrease from 1993 (23%) to 1999 (17%) in the rate of children in poverty, the United States still ranks highest in childhood poverty among all industrialized nations.

America’s test scores are barely average compared to other countries. 470,000 15-year-old students took the OECD test in math, science, and language arts. The test was scored on a 1,000 point scale. The U.S average score in math was 487 meaning that 24 out of the 34 countries ranked higher. This includes Finland who scored a 541. In science, America scored an average of 502 which placed them at 17th. Once again Finland was a leader on the scoreboard. Finally, in language arts the U.S scored a 500 putting them in 14th place. Finland still ranked higher; they were in the ranks with places like Shanghai. “The brutal fact here is there are many countries that are far ahead of us… this should be a massive wake up call”, says U.S Education Secretary Arnie Duncan (Hechinger). So why is education so important?

Our school system is one of the most praised things in the United States of America. At a very young age we put our children in school to educate them and make them intelligent. We see these children as our future doctors, lawyers, and business men. The United States of America gives quality education with experienced teachers whose goals are to make the children our future leaders. We don’t only educate these children with book smarts, but we

“Do you feel like you live in a nation of idiots?,” said Michael More in the article “Idiot Nation” (1). We live in the leading country in the world but yet we have a higher percentage of illiterate poeple than most countries. Due to the country’s poor education system not providing sufficient and equal education for all. The American public education system does more harm than good because it does not give the same educational opportunities to all students, teachers that are not motivated or trained to teach, kids are underestimated on their capacity to learn, and schools that care more about sponsorship from corporations then the education of the students.

The United States is lagging behind the rest of world in terms of our educational system. We seem to put more emphasis on sports while we cut teachers, defund programs, and neglect making improvements to our schools. This point is highlighted at the very beginning of the article by pointing out the fact that on a critical thinking math test, countries such as Shanghai and Singapore scored the highest while the United States ranked thirty-first. We must acknowledge the disconnect in our education systems to see how we can improve our teaching methods. Most of the top ranking countries put education over everything else which can put overwhelming pressure on its people, but they still value the fact that education equals

The United States of America is ranked twentieth in the world for education which sounds shocking, but after taking a look at how other countries run their schools, it is easy to see why we are so far behind. In Michael Moore’s Where to Invade Next, Moore takes a look at the education systems in countries across Western Europe and discovers that there are vast differences in how the world runs their schools.