In general, public schools do not provide the quality education they once did, and what they do provide is steadily deteriorating. There are countless statistics that support this statement.
According to the End of the American Dream website, federal, state, and local governments are spending nearly a trillion dollars a year to resolve this problem. That’s more money per student than any other country spends, with Luxembourg the only exception.
For a trillion dollars, U.S. schools should be the best in the world. They’re not, and compared to other countries, the ranking of American students continues to spiral downward. Why is this problem so difficult to solve? If money is not the answer, what is?
Unfortunately, this problem neither starts in the classroom nor is it confined to the classroom. And blaming any one group or issue for this alarming situation does not even begin to explain what’s going on.
Bright Spots
It should be noted that even these days, there are bright spots in education. There are still some incredibly dedicated and talented teachers and students who excel both in and outside of N.Y.C. They provide/get a first-rate education and compare very favorably to their counterparts anywhere in the world. But the percentage of them is lower than it used to be.
Meanwhile, other students stand out not for the skills they’ve mastered but for the extent to which they are lacking them.
The following appeared on MSN: “National statistics indicate that close to one-fifth of high school graduates are unable to read at a functional level. This means they cannot effectively comprehend and use written information in their daily life or work settings.”
Think that’s bad? Purdue Univ. had a much more devastating report. “The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) very recently revealed that the nation’s 12th-graders hit a historic performance low. Math scores cratered to levels not seen since 2005, and reading scores plummeted to their lowest level since testing began in 1992.”
Here is their bottom line: “One third of high school seniors lack basic reading comprehension skills and in mathematics the picture is even bleaker. Only 22% achieved proficiency; 45% can’t even manage basic math ... Around two thirds are academically unprepared for college in math and reading.”
Students lacking these basic skills showed up most frequently in low-income areas where school closures, chronic absenteeism, and staffing issues exacerbate the problem. And according to the Organisation (sic) for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a global leader in education policy and research, the average U.S. student is almost a full year behind the average student from other countries; Singapore’s students are three years ahead of ours.
There are many more statistics that show incredible failures in the educational system, and following are some of them.
*Only 26% of U.S. adults know the names of the three branches of government;
*Less than one quarter of college graduates know what the First Amendment says;
*Most adults have no idea how many Justices sit on the Supreme Court;
*Incredibly, 60% of students did not know which countries the U.S. fought against in World War II. Only 24% knew why the colonists fought the British. And only 24% knew that Benjamin Franklin was one of the nation’s founders – a much higher percentage thought he invented the light bulb.
The U.S. is described as the world’s greatest country, so how is it possible that so many students – and even adults – don’t know the basics about our government? Nor do they know the world-shaking events that changed both U.S. and world history.
Tough Questions
Education is a very complicated issue, and without question, books could be written trying to clarify it. Still, even simple explanations may shed some light on the problems we are facing.
Students years ago who were serious about getting a good education were essentially living in a different world. For the most part, they lived in two-parent homes. Family members interacted with one another. There was discipline at home AND in the classroom. After school, they ate a nutritious meal prepared by their stay-at-home mother. For sure, it wasn’t Paradise, but it offered incredible benefits and support.
Fast forward to today. An estimated 23%-30% of K-12 students live in single-parent homes, according to the Pew Research Center, and by the time they come home at the end of the day, many are stressed out and exhausted from all the pressures they face on a daily basis. Illegal drugs and problems of the times are prevalent.
The classroom has also changed. Teachers are no longer the authority figures they once were. According to AI Overview, crime and safety are ongoing issues in NY public schools (and elsewhere). There has been an increase in violent and disruptive incidents, assaults, and sexual offenses, as well as in other issues, including bullying and burglaries. Studies show that many young people spend their free time logged on to some electronic device or gadget, watching who knows what.
Shocking as it sounds, there is also a mental health problem in public schools, according to educational service provider Proximity Learning, and it poses serious difficulties for elementary, secondary, and high school students.
Proximity says that approximately 10% of children ages 3 to 17 experience anxiety, while 7% have one or more diagnosed behavioral disorders. Moreover, 40% of high school students experience persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, and 20% said they have seriously considered suicide.
To some of them, the classroom has become a refuge from the problems they have at home, while for others, their home is a refuge from their problems in the classroom.
The classroom is very often not a conducive environment for learning – violence and the fear of violence, illegal drugs, illegal weapons, and more have become far too common.
Anecdotally, I’d like to share a story. I had a friend who taught a sixth-grade class, and he approached his work with great enthusiasm. One assignment he gave the class was to write a composition, and one student made numerous errors; my friend corrected those.
The student did not approve of his changes and hid behind a staircase, waiting for his teacher to pass. When he did, the student snuck up behind him and smashed a textbook over his head, knocking him out. My friend was extremely upset and told me he would never again correct papers so carefully. Soon afterward, he quit.
A shortage of teachers, stressed-out teachers, underfunded budgets for education, a shortage of counselors – all of these are real issues but just part of the overall problem. Being a teacher or a student may never have been easy for some. But these days, it can be totally overwhelming.
Sources: endoftheamericanmdream.com; msn.com; oecd.org; pewresearch.org; proxlearn.com; business.purdue.edu
Gerald Harris is a financial and feature writer. Gerald can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.