The US Education System: A Few Small Ideas that Can Make a Big Difference

There isn’t as much wrong with the American education system as there is wrong with the way it has been monetized over the last few decades. Considering that the education industry was deemed to be worth 1,350 billion US dollars in 2017, with the total value to cross 2,040 billion US dollars by 2026, that shouldn’t really come as a surprise.

While no one is against business, there is more to education and healthcare than just the business aspect of it, or at least there used to be anyway. As the “educational” aspect itself is almost on the verge of being forgotten under the pressure of the booming education “industry,” a few small ideas may just hold the key to prioritizing academics and student welfare within the US education system once again.

Government Tutoring Programs for Student Who Can’t Keep Up

One of the great truths of human existence that no one is willing to admit, lies in acceptance of the fact that not everyone has the same intelligence or expertise in every department. Small variations are expected and they should not matter, but when a child is constantly unable to maintain his/her grades in spite of trying hard, it is a sign that special attention towards the child is necessary to figure out the problem and the solution.

One shouldn’t necessarily have to be a special needs child in order to receive special attention. The general rule should be that as soon as a child begins to repeatedly perform poorly in school tests, personal tutoring should be assigned to that student automatically.

Private tutoring or supplemental education is meant to help the children who can’t keep up with the lessons in general school classes and therefore gives them a second opportunity to catch up on them.

While private tutoring is a huge part of the education industry as well, it is generally quite expensive and the general population cannot afford it.

The government should consider a modified version of the Supplemental Educational Services (SES) implemented as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. While the SES failed primarily due to corruption and inadequate measures to curb the corruption, it had the right ideas and needs a rehashing.

A Wider Implementation and Acceptance of Online Education

The online education industry isn’t outside the education industry as a whole of course, but there are so many benefits to these courses that they can and often do prioritize the students, especially when it comes to professional degree courses.

Let us take the example of the Suffolk MBA Online degree course, which allows experienced professionals to complete their education from anywhere in the world, and without forcing a fulltime employee to quit his job while doing so. You can check out Suffolk University’s online MBA programs by clicking this link to the University’s official website. The program has the AACSB International Accreditation, so rest assured that it’s one of the few online MBA courses which will be valued all across the industry.

Traditional MBA courses, on the other hand, not only charge a huge amount in tuition fees, accommodation costs and living costs, but they put the professional and his/her family under tremendous economic pressure.

They now have to worry about paying back the education loan with interest, paying for their own regular expenses, maintaining the needs of their family, and do all that without a definite source of income! Top all of this off with the fact that when an employee takes a break to complete his/her MBA, they also lose out on the job experience during the time they are in college.

More provisions, a wider range of courses and wider acceptance of online education in general can make a huge difference in the US education system. It just solves so many issues at once that it’s almost surprising to see that online courses in various subjects are not even more popular than they already are in 2019.

“Lunch Shaming” Needs to be Curbed with Severe Legal Action

It isn’t uncommon for schools to call out parents and students in front of everyone who have not yet managed to pay the school lunch bills. Sometimes, the staff may even mark them, so that they don’t get any food during lunchtime from the school cafeteria and are embarrassed in front of everyone. It shouldn’t be hard to imagine that none of this bodes well for the psychological or social wellbeing of the students who are subjected to such behavior.

Although the economic shortcomings in certain underdeveloped regions of the country might make it difficult to provide free lunch to everybody who needs it, the behavior is beyond abhorrent and must be taken action against with strict punishment measures put into place. The sad part is, this happens more in public schools that already have the funds to provide those “free” meals, but the authorities are often trying to manipulate the funds.

Counter Overcrowding in Public Schools

The fact about education is, the smaller the number of students there are in a class, the better results a teacher can hope to attain. Unfortunately, as of now, especially in light of the fact that multiple public schools are closing every year and in every state, the remaining schools are all overcrowded with too many students in each class.

As this situation cannot be ideal for teachers, students or education in general, the government needs to start building more public schools and reduce pressure from the current ones.

If that proves to be impossible, then online public education is an option worth considering, perfecting and implementing with more seriousness.

Problems are there in every education system in the world, and the US education system is no different. In fact, when a nation has multiple of the world’s best universities that are still going strong with impressive results, things are not as bad as it may seem at times. Unfortunately, the situation has definitely deteriorated in the middle school and high-school sector of public education, but it’s still not anything the country can’t handle, provided it decides to take at least some of the steps we just discussed, before things go further downhill.