Why is there a push for education reform?
Why is there a continuing push for educational reform from both major parties?
Some people believe that talking about education is an easy way of scoring political points. The theory seems to make sense, because the latest wave of reforming has been going on for some 30 years. By other accounts, education has been constantly reformed and re-reformed as long as it has around. If reforms keep happening, maybe they are not really needed.
Yet it is not all politics, and the American educational system has serious problems. Over the last hundred years, spending keeps rising and results do not seem to be improving. This, of course, cannot go on indefinitely. If the trend continues, education will bankrupt public finances (if medical spending doesn’t do that first). Moreover, Americans and South Koreans share the dubious distinction of spending the largest portions of their GDP on education. In the fiscal year 2006, school districts in the United States spent an average of $9,138 per student. Neither of the two countries looks very good in international comparisons. In other words, taxpayers have every reason to worry about how well their money is spent. That is the real driving force for educational reforming. Both K-12 and higher educational systems are more and more out of synch with the rest of the economy. While other industries show gains in efficiency and labor productivity, education seems to be going in the opposite direction. How come our computers get cheaper and more powerful by the year, but our tuition bills and education taxes go up? This is why something has to be done. The problem is real.
Another problem is the achievement gaps among racial and economic groups, and it is closely related to the first one. It just does not make sense that African American and Hispanic kids perform much worse than white and Asian students. The differences in quality of schooling are the only explanation. All alternative hypotheses (genetic and cultural) have been largely discredited. Therefore, if schools can be good and bad, there should be a way to make bad school better. The second problem is also real.
Why the reforms do not seem to be working is another question, and it is much harder to answer. There is also a genuine disagreement about what reforms make sense to try. Come back to this page to find out about some answers. Write me if you think you know what to do. The solution will not necessarily come from educational experts.
For more information: Write Alexander.Sidorkin AT unco.edu
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Why is there a push for education reform?
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