Gavin Mathis (George Washington University) on Educational Opportunity
March 21, 2012
Does Educational Opportunity Remain the Key to Success in the United States?
Millions of students wake up every morning, pack their books and walk to schools that are failing them and their country. For the first time in the nation’s history, many education scholars fear the current generation of high school students will be less educated than their parents. In order for American schools to produce a workforce for the 21st century, our education system needs to be reformed from the bottom up.
Access to quality public education remains the most viable means of attaining success in the United States. Unfortunately, you wouldn’t believe this if you looked at how federal and state dollars have been diverted from public education during the past decade.
Public universities across the nation are teetering on becoming private institutions due to the dismal lack of funding from state legislatures. In the state of Washington, state biennial budget support for the state’s land-grant university (Washington State University) dropped more than $133.3 million during my junior and senior year, according to the president’s office. That is a 40 percent decrease. To make up for this decrease, WSU increased in-state tuition 30 percent during that same time, making it more and more difficult for students to earn a college degree.
Before the end of this year, more than a $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt will exist. This toxic debt will ripple through the economy as debt-laden students delay purchases for a car or first home. Our neglect of the nation’s education system has reached the point that our ability to remain the world leader in innovation has come into question.
To solve the problems plaguing the nation’s education system, reformers need to think outside the box. Controversial ideas like expanding access to charter schools, incentivizing school districts to change by tying funding to reforms, ending tenure and introducing merit pay for teachers, increasing the length of the average school day, and many others need to be considered.
The nation has its share of public education advocates: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former Washington D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, and Harlem Children’s Zone founder Geoffrey Canada, but they need help. Now is the time for everyone to become a leader in their own community because the solution to the nation’s energy crisis, the cure for the next pandemic and the invention that will revolutionize American industry will come from our nation’s classrooms if students are given a chance.
Public universities across the nation are teetering on becoming private institutions due to the dismal lack of funding from state legislatures. In the state of Washington, state biennial budget support for the state’s land-grant university (Washington State University) dropped more than $133.3 million during my junior and senior year, according to the president’s office. That is a 40 percent decrease. To make up for this decrease, WSU increased in-state tuition 30 percent during that same time, making it more and more difficult for students to earn a college degree.
Before the end of this year, more than a $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt will exist. This toxic debt will ripple through the economy as debt-laden students delay purchases for a car or first home. Our neglect of the nation’s education system has reached the point that our ability to remain the world leader in innovation has come into question.
To solve the problems plaguing the nation’s education system, reformers need to think outside the box. Controversial ideas like expanding access to charter schools, incentivizing school districts to change by tying funding to reforms, ending tenure and introducing merit pay for teachers, increasing the length of the average school day, and many others need to be considered.
The nation has its share of public education advocates: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former Washington D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, and Harlem Children’s Zone founder Geoffrey Canada, but they need help. Now is the time for everyone to become a leader in their own community because the solution to the nation’s energy crisis, the cure for the next pandemic and the invention that will revolutionize American industry will come from our nation’s classrooms if students are given a chance.
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