Zaynab Abdusamad 

Professor Overby 

English 111 

June 27, 2023 

Problems With Our Education System 

Education and knowledge are two components that are important in our daily lives. Without them, we would not know how to do a variety of things, such as communicate properly, think critically, undergo personal development, understand the world around us, and so much more. However, America, whose education system used to be ranked number one in the world, is now trying to combat the drastic amount of high school dropouts and failing test scores. So where did we go wrong? The American School system is failing our students because there is a lack of funding going toward our schools, education is not the country’s first priority, the teachers are not teaching properly, and the students are no longer interested in learning. In the United States, truly little funding goes towards the school system. In the article US Student Achievement Trends Downward as Other Countries Improve written by Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor at Standford University, Darling mentions that prisons often receive more funding than our schools causing a “decreasing slot in higher education systems.” Socioeconomics also plays a significant role in this problem. Even though “rich kids perform below their peers in 18 other countries,” Wendy Kopp, the author of Do American Schools Need to Change, “Only 9 percent of low-income students are graduating from college,” which are African American and Hispanic communities. This is because the United States spends less on children with lower incomes and more on children with higher incomes with the limited budget that we already have. Therefore, if schools are not designed for success and students lack the necessary resources, they will fall behind. However, if proper and equal funding goes out to the schools and students receive the resources required there could be a change for the better.

Another reason the American school system is failing our students is because education is not the priority in this country. According to the article What the Best Education Systems Are Doing Right by Amy Choi, an author, countries such as Finland and South Korea used to be at the bottom of the barrel regarding their education systems. However, as of recently, they have jumped tremendously in ranks to where they now surpass the United States and are considered to have one of the best education systems. The reason these countries were able to get ahead so quickly is because they made having a good education system their number one priority. For example, South Korea has its students study year-round with the additional help of tutors and Finland implements rich extracurricular activities. Both systems implement a good amount of rigor but also allow the students to benefit from what they are learning, unlike the United States which “by contrast, lack the same rigor and the expectation that all students can and should perform at a high level,” Kopp states. This is why Poland was able to catch up so fast with the developed world, having it only been three years, to eventually surpassing us in reading and math. Therefore, if the United States would make having a beneficial education system their number one priority, we too would be among the other countries with great curriculums. 

Teachers receiving poor training is also why the United States education system is failing our children. In Darling’s article, she included a description of a California school called Luther Burbank. It was stated that eleven out of thirty-five teachers had not received their full nonemergency teaching credentials. Although that leaves twenty-four teachers still certified, the students are not receiving the qualified education that they need. In addition, Choi states that teachers in Finland teach for six hundred hours a year whereas teachers in the United States teach for one thousand one hundred hours and although it may seem like the more you teach the more knowledge, you are obtaining that idea is false. Because the teachers in Finland teach fewer hours a year than those in the United States, they have more time to work on professional development, and meet with colleagues, students, and families whereas U.S. teachers do not. However, most of these problems are beyond the teacher's control which is why, in order to solve this problem, we need rigorous teacher evaluations but also have the government change certain regulations the teachers must follow and improve on them. 

Lastly, the reason America’s education system is failing our children is because the students have lost interest in learning. It is no doubt that the American curriculum focuses on “cognitive growth and little about anything else,” Sam Chaltain, an education activist, says. Therefore, these students are subjected to only one type of growth up until their senior year of high school, they get bored of the monotony and end up burnt out, uninterested, and in worse cases drop out. This is because, as Nikhil Goyal, an author and speaker, stated “We’re born with curiosity, wonder, and intrinsic motivation.” However, formal schooling kills all of that. Therefore, America’s education system should involve multiple growths rather than just cognitive. They should also put emphasis on extracurricular activities because learning does not only happen within a classroom. 

In conclusion, the American education system has not been doing its best in recent years and because of this many students have been failed by it. Whether that is from not receiving proper funding, education not being valued, teachers not being prepared for the classroom, or students just no longer being interested. Therefore, this education system has a lot of improvements to make, and we can start by making education the number one priority, making sure schools are properly funded, that teachers are professionally trained, and that students focus on various aspects of growth. America might be at the bottom right now, in terms of education, but that does not mean we must stay there.

Works Cited 

Choi, Amy S. “What the Best Education Systems Are Doing Right.” Ideas.Ted.Com. TED Conferences, LLC, 4 Sept. 2014, ideas.ted.com/what 

the-best-education-systems-are-doing-right/. 

Hammond, Linda Darling. “US Student Achievement Trends Downward as Other Countries Improve.” Do Schools Prepare Students for a Global Economy? Ed. Judeen Bardos. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "Restoring Our Schools." The Nation, 27 May 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in 

Context.ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/DocumentToolsPortletWindow?display GroupName=Viewpoints&p=OVIC%3AGIC&catId=&action=2&documentId=GALE%7CEJ30 10830202&zid=20e0bcdcff7554c56f1923cf85c4c4bb#.V8LtvAdAdgU.link&source=Bookmark &u=guilford&jsid=88e28dd6e8d5710437fc81bda658ee7b. 

Townsend, John Converse. "How Should We Rebuild the U.S. Education System?" Forbes, 15 Feb. 2013, 

www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2013/02/15/how-should-we-rebuild-the-u-s-education-system/#1f5 ad6cc1cfe. 

Kopp, Wendy. “Do American Schools Need to Change? Depends Who You Compare Them To.” The Atlantic, 25 Oct. 2013, 

www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/do-american-schools-need-to-change-depends what-you-compare-them-to/280768/.