Education

Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context

Of all American institutions, the educational system has perhaps the greatest impact on the lives of ordinary people. Children gain knowledge about a standard range of subjects from English and history to mathematics and science. They also learn social skills and are exposed to different people and ideas. Educational achievement is the single largest influence on an individual’s future earning power. More than anything else, in fact, it is education that shapes a person’s future.

Because of the importance of education, Americans want citizens, not politicians, to have as much control over it as possible. This attitude has resulted in strong local control over schools. In the 1990s, parents moved to gain even greater control over their children’s education by demanding some choice in schools, experimenting with homeschooling, and sending their children to charter schools. Local policies often come into conflict with federal laws, however, and many aspects of today’s educational system lead to political controversy and legal debate.

Elementary and Secondary Education

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 56 million children were enrolled in elementary and secondary schools in 2009. The great majority of these children attend public schools, but private and religious schools educate a significant number of students as well. The first decade of the 2000s saw the rise of charter schools (independent schools funded with public money). Homeschooling also is becoming more popular. The growing popularity of these alternatives to traditional public education reflects parental concerns about certain aspects of the nation’s educational system.

Types of Schools

A wide variety of elementary and secondary schools serve the United States. Most are free public schools, open to any resident of the geographical area, or district, that the school serves. Many public school systems also include specialized schools, often called magnet schools, or academies, that focus on a particular field of study, such as science or the arts. Students are usually assigned to these schools on the basis of overall academic ability or demonstrated interest and skill in the subject matter.

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Thousands of private elementary and secondary schools exist, and many are affiliated with a particular religion, such as the Roman Catholic Church. Unlike public schools, private schools receive their funds from tuition and fees as well as from financial contributions by supporters and former students. A student who wants to attend a private school may have to pass an entrance examination, a screening, or an interview process.

Charter schools are a special type of public school created through a contract, or “charter” with a local school board or an agency of state government. The charter establishes a set of goals that the school promises to achieve and for which it is held accountable. In return, the school can set many of its own policies and it does not have to follow some regulations that apply to other public schools. Charter schools have been at the center of recent debates over the quality of public education and the issue of school choice. Proponents of charter schools, such as President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, say charter schools get better results than traditional public schools. But some traditional public school systems and states are hostile to charter schools’ challenge to their way of doing things.

School Administration

The United States had more than 14,000 school districts in 2012, each with its own schools, school board, and administration. Local districts determine many of their own policies and procedures, set the school curriculum, and choose the instructional materials used in class. Each school district, however, must follow state laws in such matters as graduation requirements and teacher qualifications. Private schools must also meet state laws, but often the requirements (teacher certification, for example) are less strict than those imposed on public schools.

Local control of public schools helps ensure that school practices and curricula reflect the community’s values. It also allows citizens to have a direct say in the operation of schools. Through local elections, citizens can choose who serves on school boards, which have the power to set school policies, budgets, and local school tax rates. Limits to local control of schools exists. The federal government has often stepped in to protect the constitutional rights of students against local actions. In the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), for example, the Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation of public schools. Other federal laws and court rulings have set policy on how local schools should deal with such matters as freedom of speech, religious expression, and the rights of various minority groups.

School Funding

The money to support public schools comes almost exclusively from local property taxes and grants from state governments. Each of these sources accounts for just under half of the funding of public schools. The federal government provides less than 10 percent of the money for public schools. State and federal funds typically come as grants to school districts that meet certain requirements. Private schools are not entitled to receive tax dollars or government funding except under certain conditions. A private school that enrolls disabled students, for example, may be eligible for public aid under laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities.

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One of the effects of local funding is that wealthier communities are able to spend far more money per student than poorer ones. Wealthier communities can afford newer and better buildings, textbooks, and instructional equipment. They can also attract better teachers by offering higher salaries. Some states have taken over a greater share of educational funding to try to address these problems. Some states even have adopted so-called “Robin Hood” plans to redistribute tax dollars from richer districts to poorer ones. But despite such attempts to level the playing field, rich districts still spend considerably more on education than poorer ones.

Cross-Cultural Comparisons

The American system of elementary and secondary education differs quite dramatically from that of other industrialized nations. In Japan and most European countries, the national government runs the educational system through a ministry of education. This agency may set policies and teacher qualifications, establish the curriculum, select texts and instructional materials, and provide funding for all of the schools. Local school boards oversee such actions as hiring teachers and planning curricula. Their decisions must meet national guidelines, however, and may be vetoed by the national ministry. This system reduces local control but also eliminates many of the inequalities in spending that exist in the United States. In addition the use of standardized national curricula and exams helps ensure that degrees from different schools have equal value.

Most American secondary schools are comprehensive, which means that they include both academic and vocational training. Many other developed nations, however, have separate academic and vocational schools to which students are assigned at an early age. In Germany, for example, students who show academic promise at age ten are selected to enroll in an academic high school called a gymnasium. Those who are considered less suited for higher education enter vocational schools. Students who graduate from the gymnasium must take an exam to qualify for university education. Graduates of vocational high schools usually continue to advanced vocational schooling or an apprenticeship program, combining both classroom and on-the-job training.

These differences in organization produce profoundly different educational choices and outcomes. In the United States, almost two-thirds of high school graduates go on to some form of higher education, ranging from junior colleges that grant one- or two-year certificates or degrees to universities that offer bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs. About 25 percent of American students who enter college eventually receive a bachelor’s degree. The German system of higher education includes a variety of technical schools as well as traditional universities. About 25 percent of German students enter university and about 15 percent receive a university diploma, which is comparable to a master’s degree in the United States.

In countries such as Germany where test results determine the course of a person’s schooling, education is strongly related to the type of career the person pursues. In the United States, however, career decisions are typically delayed until college or even after. An individual’s academic studies often have little or no relation to the eventual career choice.

Higher Education

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Institutes of higher learning include colleges and universities, and vocational, technical, or trade schools that award academic degrees or certificates. As of 2007, more than 18 million students of all ages were enrolled in American institutions of higher learning. In 2009 this number increased to 20.4 million students. No other country sends a greater percentage of its citizens to colleges or universities.

Types of Schools

A wide variety of schools provides education beyond the secondary level. About 4,300 colleges and universities offer associate’s (two-year) or bachelor’s (four-year) degrees, and many also award master’s and doctoral degrees. More than half of the nation’s colleges and universities are private institutions, and a considerable number of these are affiliated with religious groups. More than three-fourths of all college and university students, however, are enrolled in public institutions.

The makeup of the student body varies considerably from one college to the next. Two-year colleges have a higher percentage of minority students and students from lower socioeconomic classes. Most American colleges and universities are racially integrated and coeducational (enrolling both men and women). Nearly one hundred all-black and nearly two hundred single-sex colleges exist in the United States.

Administration and Funding

Most American colleges and universities have a great deal of freedom in choosing their curricula and setting school policies. State agencies and local school boards do not dictate academic standards, determine teacher qualifications, or choose textbooks. An administrative board affiliated with the college or university handles many of these duties. It is common, however, for individual professors to develop the curricula and choose the textbooks for their classes. Many public university systems are made up of several colleges within the same state. The University of California system, for example, includes colleges in more than a dozen cities. A board of regents decides the broad policies that apply to all colleges within the system.

Independent agencies review colleges and universities to make sure they meet set standards of academic quality. Regional agencies examine major indicators of a college’s strengths and weaknesses such as financial health or how efficiently it is run. Specialized agencies for professions, such as dentistry, law, or veterinary medicine, determine whether a curriculum provides adequate training in a particular field. A college that does not receive the stamp of approval will lose federal grants or loans and possibly potential students.

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Funding for public colleges and universities comes mainly from tuition and fees. Tax money, state funds, and contributions from former students are other sources. Private institutions, which receive no state funding, rely heavily on endowment funds established with contributions from former students. Both private and public colleges and universities are eligible for grants from the federal government to build facilities, conduct research, or sponsor certain academic programs.

Cross-Cultural Comparisons

Policies for admission to higher education institutions in the United States differ significantly from those of other countries. In most industrialized nations, students who wish to enter a university must pass a standardized exam supervised by the ministry of education. The United States has no such examination. The university system in these other countries is smaller and more selective than in the United States. The small percentage of the population that attends universities in other countries tends to come from a privileged class with access to good jobs and financial rewards.

Controversial Issues in Education

Some of the most hotly debated topics in education deal with who should control the schooling of America’s children. Parents’ desire to have a strong voice in their children’s education has often led to conflicts with government policies. Two particularly controversial areas are freedom of expression and school choice.

Freedom of Expression

Before 1960 American schools decided what kind of ideas to which students were exposed. They sponsored prayers and Bible readings and had students take part in patriotic activities, such as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Beginning in the 1960s, however, the Supreme Court ruled such activities unconstitutional. It decided that school sponsorship of religious activities violated the First Amendment doctrine of separation of church and state. In a similar vein, it found compelling students to participate in patriotic activities to be inconsistent with the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of expression.

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Many people believe it was a mistake to remove prayer from public schools. They often blame such actions for increasing violence and moral decay in society. Some parents responded by sending their children to private schools that are free to teach whatever religious and civic beliefs they choose. Those who support the Supreme Court’s decisions in these matters point out that trying to impose particular religious or social viewpoints in school goes against traditional American concepts of freedom. Others argue that public declarations of patriotism and faith are themselves well-established American traditions.

School Choice

Many American parents have begun to search for alternatives to traditional public schools. Their motivations are varied. Some object to lack of religious or moral instruction in schools. Others complain about the poor quality of public school education with too many inadequately trained teachers and overcrowded classrooms. Some worry about safety in the schools. Still others believe that public schools are not spending tax dollars effectively.

Parents who are dissatisfied with public schools have always been free to send their children to private or religious schools, but many cannot afford the cost of these schools. These parents feel that their children should be allowed to attend any public school instead of being forced to attend neighborhood schools of poor quality. Some school districts have adopted a voucher system that allows parents to enroll their children in schools with higher ratings instead of neighborhood schools. The voucher entitles the school to receive state funding equal to the cost of educating a student in the local school. In some places, students can use vouchers to attend a private school.

Supporters claim that vouchers have benefits beyond giving parents greater control over their children’s education. They argue that vouchers promote academic quality and efficiency by rewarding better-performing schools. They also claim that vouchers force weaker schools to be more competitive to avoid losing good students. Opponents fear that the use of vouchers will only make weak schools weaker by removing the best students and leaving them to deal with the least prepared and most disruptive ones. Others object to the use of vouchers to divert public tax dollars to private schools, particularly to those that promote a particular religious viewpoint. The constitutionality of some publicly financed voucher programs has been challenged. In one important case, the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Grant Program was found to violate the religious establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution. In June 2002 the Supreme Court reversed the appeals court decision and, in a 5–4 decision, ruled that the school vouchers were not unconstitutional.

After you have read the article, go back to your pre-writing and expand your list to include information you learned there about the education system and its structure.