Education Issues

So I've long lambasted the weakness of the United States education system. I've been particularly disappointed with the lack of science and math education. Today, I read an interesting op-ed by the former CEO of Lockheed Martin:

With all the talk of America's very real weaknesses in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math), you might be surprised to learn that the answer—according to the federal government's National Assessment of Educational Progress—is neither science nor math. And despite what might be suggested by the number of underwater home loans, high-school seniors actually fare best in economics.

Which leaves history as the answer, the subject in which students perform the most poorly. It's a result that puts American employers and America's freedoms in a worrisome spot.

Mr. Augustine goes onto say:

In my position as CEO of a firm employing over 80,000 engineers, I can testify that most were excellent engineers—but the factor that most distinguished those who advanced in the organization was the ability to think broadly and read and write clearly.

When we think about education reform, we should not limit our thinking to what aspects need to be improved, but rather, how to improve the whole. Being able to think is probably one of the biggest drags on students today. The skills you obtain from studying one subject can pay dividends to learning other subjects.

How do you improve the educational system though? Is there one way? Probably not. We live in a diverse country with diverse challenges. In Florida, there was a method that worked.

In an article praising a Bush, they say education should be left to the states:

“By federalizing education policy you create resistance at the classroom, school, school district -- and even the state level,” he told the Harvard Political Review earlier this year. “I think you’re getting more dynamic results by having the states play the policy role and holding local school districts accountable for actual learning.”

The state of Florida's educational system was not succeeding:

In 1998, Florida’s public educational system was ranked among the worst in the nation. Its high school graduation rate was an appalling 52 percent; 47 percent of its fourth-graders were functionally illiterate, according to nationally administered tests. To address this crisis, the state had adopted a rigorous set of criteria for each grade called the Sunshine State Standards, and established a system of tests, the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT), administered to fourth-, fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders to see if students were living up to them.

What did Jeb Bush do? Reform, spend, improve:

Their first major legislative initiative, passed swiftly by the Florida legislature, was called the Florida A-Plus Plan. It’s primary features included the following four provisions: Making the FCAT an annual exercise so that each student is tested each year; assign letter grades, A through F, to every school in the state based on academic performance; requiring D and F schools to produce a detailed plan to improve performance -- and providing state money to help; and allowing students from chronically underperforming schools the option of transferring to any public school in their district, or an adjacent district, or even attending a private school at state expense.

And merit-based pay:

Bush and his team followed up in subsequent years with a plethora of other innovations. These included the always-controversial merit pay to retain the best teachers; changes in teacher certification procedures designed to attract instructors with a high grasp of the subject material (especially in math); ending “social promotions,” especially from third grade to fourth; and subsidizing PSAT tests for high school students from needy families. A third wave of policies expanded scholarships for needy kids, funded charter schools and “virtual” schools, and opened a number of pre-kindergartens programs across the state.

Bush saw success even in underrepresented minorities. This was a tremendous accomplishment.

Florida is a unique example, but it's not one that should be ignored. They did a lot of things I would agree with such as incentivizing schools to do better and to provide students and their families with options. For far too long, public education has been what is offered. It is time to let the people have the choice. This should paint a clearer picture to what works and what does not.

Poll Added: Should Undergraduate Degrees Be Mandatory?

I ask this question, having read this article on inequality and the credit crisis. With the growth of technology, we need to advance education. The idea of having a high school degree before was to provide a proper work force. Now that we need so much more human capital to be qualified for job, should we make college mandatory? It's a matter of building human capital, in my opinion.

Vote in the poll, and respond to this post if you have more to say.

Defining The New America

Back at commencement, at the University of Michigan, Barack Obama expressed his distaste for partisan politics. He told us that it was important to put aside differences and work together for the greater good. His frustrations were clearly symptomatic of the direction of his administration. It has been tough for the President to accomplish his objectives. The continuous oscillation between right and left has not been quelled by Obama's historic election, but perhaps heightened. The problem with this is that we're not making any progress; we are moving from wing to wing instead of forward.

I've been reading about fascism this week and there are some values that I found significant. The nationalistic spirit and the ability to engage people is an essential part of fascism. Also, there was a sense of machismo, at least in italian fascism. There was a strong sense from Mussolini that a weak Lira conveyed a weak Italy to the world. America used to have that masculine snarl to it. That seems to have disappeared. Obviously, the racial aspect of fascism, uniting a race against others, is not something that is just. Nor is genocide. It's not something that would work in the US anyway. Look at Franco and Spain; if anything, fascism divided that country. The idea to unite a people of a nation has significant value to me.

I've noticed is that people take a lot of pride in this country, but there are a lot of tangible things that we do not have anymore. Our manufacturing isn't leading the world anymore. Our technology, our products, they're not the best. We still have intangible rights to be proud of like the freedom of expression which we will always have. However, we need to do better to ensure that people can hold grasp onto these tangible things that instill pride in our nation. In order to do this, we need to provide an environment of success.

The United States is an open nation, a nation that believes in competition and free markets. This is why I get weary when people mention tariffs, quotas, or taxes. Outsourcing doesn't really bother me. If you can coordinate your business where you can have employees half way across the planet, more power to you. Efficiency is important. The costs of hiring are straining our businesses and we need to provide ways to ease this burden. Businesses, particularly those in technical or specialized fields, are looking for candidates with specific qualifications. Truth is that we're not providing our businesses with these candidates, so they have to resort to hiring foreign workers. These foreign workers cost money because they need to be sponsored for their working Visas. This hampers small and medium businesses in particular. The costs of sponsoring these workers and keeping them in the US adds up. This is a more prevalent problem.

Quite simply, we need to provide a better educational system such that our workers are more competitive. We need to provide the technical backgrounds. While the amount of technical knowledge that a person needs has increased, the educational system has not changed much at all. We need to reform education and provide more stringent requirements through out the schooling process. We need to build the workers of tomorrow. We have been greatly surpassed by foreign powers such as India and China because they invest heavily in their human capital. The US needs to give the same kind of investment to education.

Another of my pet peeves is people complaining about the increased cost of healthcare in this country. Have people stopped and thought "may be it isn't the drug company or insurance company's fault?" No, because everyone needs someone to blame. Well, I'm not afraid to point the finger. It's all of our fault. We're exercising less and eating poorly. This is why I call this country a nation of fat cats. We have become complacent. We need to be healthier as a nation. This means exercise, diet, and hygiene. If we take care of ourselves, we take care of our health. The healthier we are, the less we're spending on healthcare and insurance. It's as simple as that.

These are a couple dilemmas that have really struck a cord with me recently. I don't think it would be hard to change. The problem is that the leadership in this country needs to come out and convey this to the public. I'm a blunt and straight forward person. I want to get to the point and I want to share the point. I'll do it myself if I have to.

Education in America

Apparently, the gap between students and athletes is increasing in terms of school spending:

As colleges across the country spend increasingly more on athletic programs — a median $84,446 per athlete in 2008, up almost 38% from 2005 — academic spending hasn’t changed proportionally — a median $13,349 per student, up about 20% over the same period, according to a report released today by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

Over 18 months, the athletic reform commission compiled data on college sports finances and found that at institutions belonging to major athletics conferences, median spending per athlete ranged from four to almost 11 times more than median spending on students for educational purposes. In 2008, median per capita athletics spending for Football Bowl Subdivision conference institutions was $84,446, compared to a median $13,349 per capita for academic spending.

This is distressing because some of us are paying a king's ransom to get our college education and we're not getting the education we deserve. If we are spending x number of dollars on our education, schools should be spending x number of dollars to educate us. Now, one might say schools are a business. I disagree. We have schools to increase our human capital. As people become more educated, our country accumulates more human capital. If we're not investing in human capital, we're going to fall behind the likes of India, China and the like who have stronger educational programs.

We need to invest more in math and sciences to develop stronger science based workers. We aren't just devoting more resource to workers of other countries because they are cheaper. It is also because we are not producing workers of the same technical capabilities. Our educational system has been the same for such a long time. Now, college and universities are forced to cram more information in their curricula than ever before. Students need to get advanced degrees just to advance their careers rather than supplement them. If we start educating stronger in middle school and high school, we can give our students the necessary background to thrive in the world working environment.

We are no longer leading the world. We are actually behind and we need to catch up. Reforming our educational policies and strengthening that system will go a long way in leading the road back. However, if we continue to cut programs, we might follow the path of our auto industry. Except no one is going to bail out the United States of America.