This post is a continuation of a Blog I wrote earlier this month entitled “Something is Broken”.
Part 2…
A study published by Editorial Projects in Education Research Center and released by America’s Promise Alliance stated only 52% of students in the sample population (United States top 50 largest cities) graduated high school despite what the prior estimates were projecting around 85%.
Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO of America’s Promise calls today’s students “our next class of non-performing assets.”
With the number of citizens who plan to retire and live off of the social security system + a failed education system due to lack of funding and resources + one of the highest unemployment rates in the history + a collapsed real estate market, makes you wonder what solution is out there to fix the ever growing problem.
So what is the solution? I already discussed some ideas on how to change the education system from a class standpoint in college but what about students during the earlier years?
Funding. One of the major reasons why students drop out or do not get the education they could is due to the lack of funding in our school systems. Overcrowding in the classroom, and the lack of educational tools such as textbooks leads to students not getting the propert attention they may need nor the proper education.
ABC News recently reported states such as California are experiencing public school budget cuts which will prevent new textbooks being bought for at least 4 more years. On top of that, students are also being required to print any handouts at home versus being distributed in class which adds to the rising out of pocket expenses for parents.
Well the good thing is at least the parents have jobs to pay for the rise in costs. Nope…unemployment is still at one of it’s highest in US history.
So where will the funding come from?
There are a few potential solutions out there including encouraging more US based jobs and less outsourcing which would result in decreased unemployment rates thus increase US consumer spending spurring the economy, decrease military spending outside the US, tax increases (which I cannot see do any good if people don’t have jobs to pay their mortgages let alone more taxes), or others.
What do you think could help fix this problem? Or do you feel the problem stems from something other than school funding?
