What do we need to do to get the American education system up to worldwide standards?

[Sir_Nigel014]

There is obvious reasons that our schools are far worse than other countries. What do we need to do to make our schools go to a higher education standard?

[TroubleMaker]

America has millions of fast food places that need people to pick up the trash and wash the dishes and so we only need so many rocket scientists .

We have no shortages of workers in engineering because all you have to do is look at the wages those jobs command .

Simple logic will tell you that we only need so many people for certain jobs .


We need a lot more people stocking shelves and cleaning toilets then we do working at NASA .

So why change the system . A degree in polyvinyl cylindrical container disposal still only pays $7.00 an hour and can currently be done by almost anyone .

Lobby your legislators to require a licensed graduate from an approved educational facility be required to dispose of all paper ,plastic ,and composite dining materials used by fast food joints and maybe the wage will go up slightly .


When my local bartender has a degree in art literature it makes no sense to me to work on a perfectly good educational system providing skilled workers for every job available .

[Matt]

our schools are simply average compared to the rest of the world, while our colleges are easily the best. A big reason for this are the powerful teachers unions that make it extremely difficult to fire poor teachers and does not allow good teachers to get incentive pay. At top universities they go after top professors and pay them accordingly. In high schools, your pay is already set out for you based on the union contracts. After 5 years at the school you get X dollars, after 10, you get a raise to X dollars, etc. So, where is the incentive to do any more than the minimum to keep your job? You never see junior high and hs teachers being approached by other school districts and offered more money to work for them. That just doesn't happen, there is no competition there because of the unions. Unions have destroyed our schools, the auto industry, the steel industry, major league baseball, etc etc. They need to be stopped!

[cohistoryteacher]

Well if you are talking about the "supposed" education gap between the US and European countries the stats are a little skewed. Europe has a system where in the 8th grade students take a test to determine if they are going to a traditional secondary school to receive an education to prepare them for college or to a trade secondary school to learn a trade such as plumber, construction worker, etc.

The stats you always see saying we are behind are the European students that are in the university prep secondary schools as opposed to the bulk testing of our every child left behind system. Our students are shown in the tests whether they are going to college or not after High School.

Some misguided but, well intentioned individuals who say we must make college more affordable for everyone do not realize that college is not for everyone and the US needs these students to go into our service and trades because in a society where everyone has a degree it makes that degree worthless. A Bachelors degree today is equal to what a High School diploma was in 1950s.

[yummy01]

Our socity is making it hard to help our children succeed to worldwide standards. Our kids are too interested in other things like tv, and such to worry about school. It seems as though learning is put on the back burner.

[MadLibs]

elect politicians who have a strong focus on education, otherwise organize a march on washington. our government basically does whatever the heck it wants, so good luck with us trying to get them to change something.

[Quinn22]

We need "hope" and "change".

That will do it...