The U.S. education system is broken. Underfunded schools, overworked teachers, and massive disparities in quality depending on where you live. Meanwhile, countries like Finland, Sweden, and Denmark consistently rank among the best in the world.
Some U.S. states, like Massachusetts and New Jersey, have taken a more Nordic style approach, prioritizing well funded public schools, high teacher standards, and universal access. The results speak for themselves. Students in these states outperform much of the country. So why are we not following their lead on a national scale?
Should the Department of Education take a stronger role in setting national standards, equalizing funding, and ensuring every student, no matter their zip code, gets a high quality education? Or should education remain a state by state issue, even if it means vast inequality between states.
Some push school choice as a solution, diverting funds from public schools to private and charter schools. But does this actually improve education, or does it just drain resources from the schools that need them most?
The U.S. is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. There should be no excuse for having a failing education system. If we want to remain competitive, we need to stop making education a political football and start treating it like the national priority it should be.
Genuinely curious what people think. All points welcome. How does this best get addressed?
From the top.
Yes we need the DoE to SET the standards. Leave it the states to enforce (and fail or succeed)
Fix the money. For the most part schools are VERY locally funded; my choice would be to equalize funding across the country, that will never happen; so pushing for more level funding across each state
Lastly; which will never happen, teachers need to be treated like the professionals that they are. They need to be paid like MBAs are
Agreed on all points.