Decline of western education

A study done ranking the education systems of the 24 most developed countries in the world found the United States ranked 18th. Topping the survey was South Korea and Japan; the United States did finish above such countries as Spain, Portugal and Germany. You would expect better, especially when you hear that education spending in the United States is higher than all of those other countries. The United States spends the most on education and can barely crack the top 20, it’s even worse when there is only 24 countries in the study. How far have we fallen? If you look at students entering college, a greater number now require remedial classes before they can take college level courses. This shows more than anything else how our education system is failing and by the amount of money we are spending per pupil, we should have the best education system in the world. There are several reasons why education in America is in the decline, not only since the creation of the Department of Education, but since the federal government has gotten involved in the country’s education. It’s not all the fault of the federal government; we need to look at the unions as well. Unions have proven that they are more interested in membership numbers and protecting their teachers than educating children. When unions are more concerned with automatic due deductions, political contributions and promoting the status quo than keeping qualified teachers, accountability to quality education and shielding substandard performance then it’s no surprise that our education is failing it’s students and society in general. Besides a lack of accountability, the federal government creates a problem with laws like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, which try to group all students in all states into one category, a one size fits all approach. Money may be an issue although there have been no studies that show more spending equals better results, if that was the case, then we could look at all the money wasted in the education. In Nevada it’s even worse, Nevada ranks last in graduation rates while ranking among the top in per pupil spending. A study done in 2008 listed Nevada last in the nation with an average graduation rate below 50%. The Nevada education bureaucracy claims that those stats are incorrect and their own study showed a graduation rate of barely over 60%, better, but still not acceptable. When we hear about the need for education reform the one thing that always comes up is to increase spending. The need for reform has never been greater, but we need real reform. Lots of types of reform have been tried and most have failed. The reason most of the reforms have failed is any attempt to change the status quo has been met with serious obstructions, not only from the education bureaucracy but from the unions as well. Some school districts have actually lowered their academic standards so the schools will meet federal standards for school improvement. In the misguided thought that increased funding will increase school performance, to make up for decreased budgets, schools have cut programs that they consider non-essential, programs such as music and art. Because of the failing public education system, we have seen a rise in home-schooling, public charter schools and a voucher system, which have all been under attack by the educational power structure. To reform education, states should look to what is happening in Florida. Florida has implemented several reforms that have shown student improvement in areas of reading and math; where Florida students have outpaced the national average. The reforms include more school and student accountability, improving teacher quality and school choice. School choice allows students to attend public charter schools or even private schools with a voucher system. Governor Sandoval signed an education reform package to try and help raise the Silver State out of the basement. These reforms include changing the way teachers are evaluated, making it easier to terminate substandard teachers and create a board to oversee charter schools. While these reforms may be a good start, they are far from being enough to turn around our failing education system. We need to hold teachers, administration, parents and students accountable for their performance. We need to hold the schools accountable and we need to make student performance a priority. Please see my examiner article here for links to sources.