With the the deadline having recently passed for Phase 2 applications for the “Race to the Top” program, states are now left to wait anxiously until September to find out whether they qualified for a portion of the $4.35 billion that the Obama administration has earmarked for the initiative. This program, which is designed to spur education reform amongst individual states, comes at a time when the US education system as a whole is being consistently outperformed year after year by most of the other rising powers in the world . While the US education system is definitely in need of a change, the question remains whether the “Race to the Top” program is enough to incite the kind of change necessary to truly fix the system?
Money is Not Always the Answer
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the US spends almost $600 billion on public education every year. We have access to some of the best facilities, technology, faculty etc. in the world today and yet it still does not seem to change the fact US students are not performing as well as the majority of their foreign peers. Like many other social initiatives, the problems with the US education system cannot be solved by merely increasing funding to a system that is clearly broken. In fact, according to author Jay Greene, over the course of the last 30 years, we have doubled per pupil spending (adjusting for inflation), and our schools are still no better. Consequently, while the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” program is a laudable effort and utilizes a creative, incentive-laden method for states, it does not address one of the main causes of the problem.
The Structure of Teachers’ Unions
There are many problems with US education that stem from several different areas: American culture in general, lack of parental involvement, cost of supplies/textbooks, and the teachers’ unions that dominate most of the school systems here in the US. The problem with this is that the teachers’ unions are some of the most powerful lobbyist groups in the US and consequently, they possess immense bargaining power when it comes to negotiating contracts for their members. Often times, these contracts are ultimately not what is best for the students and they are the ones who suffer as a result. Even Albert Shanker, one of the early leaders of New York’s United Federation of Teachers, admitted in the 1990’s that the unions were harming education, and he compared the unions in education to how unions were harming the automobile industry by affecting quality. The real question remains how can we improve the quality of education, while also not marginalizing many of the great teachers who currently educate our young people?
The Future of the Education System
The Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” program is a step in the right direction with regard to education reform policy, but it should not be the only piece of legislation that is designed to create change within the US education system. There needs to be more reform measures like this on that focus on accountability, effectiveness, and performance to better track how our students are doing. There also needs to be community support and involvement from students and parents, which will mean creating ways to remove the apathy and disinterest that has settled within some communities across the US. We have reached a crossroads in the US within the education system, and these types of reforms will not be easy; however, what people need to realize is that without some pain and reform now, the system will not get better and thus we will continue to get worse as a nation as a whole.
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