Major Issue in Education

The major public-education issue today is money. How much money do we spend on education? Do we need to spend more? There have been studies that have proven that the number of dollars that we have spent on public education has not had a positive impact on student achievement. So what is the problem? The problem is that we continue to spend the money on programs that are directed toward the wrong philosophy. The latest initiative was President Bush's "No student left behind." In theory that sounds great. Politically speaking it is a great slogan and did a great deal to get President Bush elected. (problems) Education is a major issue in every political campaign. Politicians continue to come up with programs every four years that promise to solve pubic educations problems. While they may sound good they are designed more to get a politician elected than they are to actually helping public education.

Not only did it take care of all students but it put accountability on schools that were not successful. Citizens today want to put the blame for the lack of success in American schools directly on the schools. The accountability sounded great to the American people. While the program called for greater expectations of students, it does not give students any alternatives in case they are not successful. It also puts other school systems in a compromising and overcrowded state if you close down schools that are not successful on the standardized test.
I believe that we need to have alternatives for the individual students. We have great examples in Europe, China, and Japan. We compare our brightest to their brightest and come up short in math and science. We need to concentrate on individual students who have exhibited ability in math and science, and continue with their efforts, while providing other meaningful careers and professions to others.
More importantly we need to start teaching our students how to think, and solve problems. The key lies in teaching students how to think, not just to memorize a set of facts. The students who gain a love for life long learning and knows how to solve problems will go much further.
When it comes to the issue of health care, politicians have a plan that is directed by doctors, hospitals, and hospital administration. The issue of education needs to be left up to the real professionals, teachers and administration, not politicians. The number of dollars spent on public education would then be worthy of the education they would get.