Education Reform

On May 4, 1980, the United States Department of Education was established as a cabinet-level department, following its separation from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Since then, it has expanded and become involved in more than educating our children. It brags of being involved beginning from birth and continuing through post-graduate studies. The Founders of this country never envisioned federal government involvement with the education of our children and the US Constitution does not give that right to the federal government.

Education was meant to be locally provided and controlled. Two main factors brought about involvement at the state and then later federal level. Many rural areas had limited resources to fund their schools at or near the same level as urban areas, so state funding was used to bring rural school funding more in line. With state funding came controls and standards to ensure the same level of education throughout the state. In response to civil rights lawsuits, the US Congress, through federal agencies, provided federal funding to local schools by sending tax money to states that would be sent to local school districts. Those funds brought new controls for both the state and local schools.

An organizational chart of the education of our children will show many levels of management long before getting to the individual school. Each of those levels feels obligated to add something to the process, even if it is just confusion. In most school districts, there are several layers of management above the classroom teacher. Additional school staff and building space are required for all of the staff, not in the classrooms. All additional activities added for sports, music, and other non-classroom activities add to the total cost of educating a student. Multi-million-dollar schools and stadiums are no longer considered “wants”; they are “required”.

All those wonderful activities that help prepare students for opportunities after graduation, must be managed at district and state levels requiring even more resources and additional controls to keep everything “fair”. Along the way, to ensure that the management levels knew what was going on, new testing was implemented to find out if the teachers were doing their job. Before they did that, mandates were issued that a student must not fail subjects, lest they might drop out of school. The new standardized tests were at first not intended to “pass or fail” the students, only to be used to grade how well the school was doing. After many years of standardized testing, too many students are graduating high school and still unable to read or do math at the 8th-grade level.

Then community colleges and universities get funding in various ways including grants and student loans. Those schools of higher learning require many courses that have nothing to do with the student’s major but generate more income and opportunities to indoctrinate students. Political ideologies have become part of the grading process that stifles individual thinking. Many universities encourage political protests and anti-America demonstrations.

People have different opinions and believe all that is needed is more money and less standardized testing of students. The education system needs significant reform. Here is where my ideas get crazy. Congress has never made anything better, especially when they make multiple attempts at fixing something. Congress should pass a law removing the federal government from the education process with some “commonsense” regulations and limitations. All federal funding for education should be authorized by Congress in the annual budget and the funds sent to the states based on student enrollments.

State funding of education should also be based on enrollment/attendance of each school district. If independent school districts have rights to levy property taxes, there will always be differences in facilities and after-school activities. Statewide school choice will provide an option for students to attend a school in the same or different district; however, transportation is the responsibility of the family.

Standardized testing must be geared toward the teaching materials used for each subject covered and used as part of the student grading. Subjects should be taught in English only with special English for second language classes and tutoring to get them ready for other subjects. Prepare the students rather than trying to have many teachers with other language skills that will never work efficiently. Use commonly accepted standards for grades that would mean the same in every school. Students failing to make a passing grade must repeat the course before going to the next course level. School years need to go back to two semesters allowing students to repeat one semester without retaking the entire year. In junior high school and high school, individual courses can be retaken while the student moves on with the other subjects.

Trade skill courses should be available so students can get experience and ideas about their career choices for those not planning to play in the NFL or NBA. History and Civics should be real and not subject to a teacher’s ideology, using standardized testing.

Schools and school districts with a higher-than-normal number of students who do not speak English will have greater problems meeting the same standards as those with few non-English; therefore, those students are not included in the standardized testing until they are being taught the regular course materials. Their first semester focuses on English and American fundamentals.

School districts that do not meet state standards will be subject to review and restrictions on their spending outside of the classroom. Those districts may get additional state funding when warranted. All school districts have a responsibility to maintain safe and secure environments with proper discipline of the students. Teachers, staff, and other students must be treated with respect and without fear. Unruly students, gangs, fights, or other discipline issues should be sufficient to remove the student from the school for a period based on the incident.

No laws or regulations can guarantee that every teacher will have the same number of “A” students or that every student will learn at the same level from every teacher. Each new teacher should become a little better teacher each year for several years; however, some teachers are truly gifted teachers who can motivate students to learn at a faster pace and strive for higher goals – these should be “Master” teachers regardless of the number of degrees. They should be paid more and their skills used to gain the best results. Some of the Master teachers should teach the high achievers to keep them reaching higher. The other Master teachers should teach those struggling to find their footing because they need additional help in many ways. These teachers need to be paid a higher salary than normal.

Every teacher I had through high school was a good teacher, but some were great teachers from my perspective. Many of the teachers back then continued to teach well beyond retirement age because they enjoyed what they were doing. That is what teaching should be again.