The Outdated School System In The United States

The role of education is widely accepted to be an essential part of our society geared towards improving our nation and individual life. When someone receives an exceptional education, they are provided with the opportunity to succeed physically, mentally, and emotionally. Nowadays in the U.S., we rank amongst the lowest in worldwide leaders when it comes to providing an education. Our system had deteriorated so much that students continue to fall behind in schools every year and fail miserably in their academics. In the United States, the major problems in public education are the lack of funding, an outdated school system, and failure to improve and properly discipline our teaching staff. Due to insufficient funds, our public education …show more content…
In the 1950s, our school system was designed to produce only a few students who went to a four year university, several vocational jobs and skilled workers, and the rest would become laborers. In today’s society, most students are expected to go on to university or an institution of higher learning and obtain certain skills and credentials. Although, that system did work back then in the 1950s, it most certainly has proven that it no longer works in today’s world. With this in mind, many employers today find the inability to hire and fill spots in their fields because of the lack of qualified individuals. Many American corporations and businesses have gone abroad to hire qualified person that meet the qualifications of their open positions. Without the proper innovation and school reform that we need, American jobs will continue to go to foreigners as opposed to Americans ultimately hurting our …show more content…
Over the years, school boards have lost the power to fire tenured teachers due to many reasons. When it comes to procedures in firing a bad teacher, the slightest error can result in a poor teacher remaining in the classroom. Studies also show that a single weak teacher can cripple students for years and ultimately reverse a student’s academic abilities. When it comes time to firing a teacher, the clout of teachers’ unions keeps their tenure strong and pushes for increasingly more complex procedures that become strenuous and difficult. In order to get rid of a bad teacher, school boards have to jump though hoops and unfortunately still fail. In cases like these at the end of every year, instead of firing bad teachers, several states do what they call a “lemon dance” or “pass the trash” as it’s called in some other states. Instead of disciplining bad teachers, a school will pass them onto to another school while receiving someone else’s underperforming teacher as a replacement for the one they gave away. In cases like these, nothing changes and progress is not made. The problem will continue to be ignored and the ones who suffer the most are the