After attending the debate between former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and former Secretary of Education Rod Paige on the state of the American public education system, I left with only one conclusion: Public education is in dire straits. Funding for public schools has been grossly misallocated and ideas to increase the quality of education in America are grossly misguided. In response, I have outlined a practical plan to fix the education system in America and re-establish a level of international excellence befitting our great nation.
One of the major problems with the federal funding of public education is the block grant system. With the decline in the U.S. education system apparent, it is clear that the states are not getting the job done. It is time for Congress to be more forceful in delineating how funds are to be spent at the state level in order to accomplish the progress legislators hope to achieve. Instead of granting lump sums of money to the states, increasing the quality of the education system would be better served by spending money at the federal level to reduce the cost of supplies, payroll and professional development expenditures seen at state and local levels.
Second, "fixing deficits with focus," a key phrase reiterated by Paige in the debate, is an antiquated philosophy of education. Eisenhower-era legislation that bolstered the education of American students in the fields of science and mathematics, predictably, made the United States the leading nation in these fields. However, much of this effort to "fix deficits with focus" was detrimental to other educational focuses, like English, the social sciences and literacy. Later presidents chose to focus on those areas and fix the newly created educational deficits.
The solution? Offer a more comprehensive curriculum that immerses students in all subjects after the liberal arts model. Current methods established through legislation and standardization generally cripple that effort by forcing focus where holistic learning is more effective.
Finally, we must increase time in the classroom. The solution is the national adoption of a year-round schooling system for all public schools in the United States as a prerequisite for receiving federal funding. Students miss out on nearly 100 weekdays that could be spent being educated. Without a year-round school system, too much time is spent relearning material covered during the last school year. Instead, it would be wiser to have schooling that occurs year-round for approximately 220 days a year. In addition to weekends, students would have two weeks between quarters to recuperate before the next term begins. Not only would this increase knowledge retention, but it would also increase classroom time, allowing students to move through concepts at a faster pace from school year to school year.
Though this plan is admittedly not a perfect solution to the problems facing the American public education system, I sincerely believe it is a bold and necessary beginning. As Daschle said, "an investment in education is the most important investment" a society can make. It is time to create a system founded not on token support and cliché statements, but on true and powerful reform.
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