My Thoughts about the US Educational System
A society is never built equally. It’s base is never as solid as wished for and the more we add to it, the more the instabilities grow until eventually the whole foundation crumbles. There have always been flaws, some larger than others, with more pronounced consequences. The men who support themselves on said society are just as equal, that being not equal at all. Some are more privileged and flourish with their society and help it to develop, while others cannot keep up with the ever advancing growth.
The secret to climbing the social ladder and being able to pull one’s weight to help with a nation’s progression is having a good education. However, the educational system of the United States is in fact one of its greatest weaknesses. In a moving world that sees many changes day after day, being educated is of great importance to the future leaders and citizens of the country. That is where major gaps, unfairnesses and imbalances show most. Students from public schools and private schools do not receive the same education, but that can also be said between two public schools varying on their location, who attends them and so forth. If in Europe, teachers are drafted by the government and touch the same salary at the start of their career and gain more the longer they work, in the US the school itself chooses the faculty.
In other words, a teacher’s salary will have to do with their location and employer, leading to further injustices and a lower education in poorer neighborhoods or States. No matter, students are always pressured to achieve the highest grades on SATs and other standard exams, in hopes of being offered or intitled to grants or free tuitions. To enter the job market and start earning a living, where you received your schooling and even the name read on your resume can be a deal breaker or instead, help seal your fate. Students, in most cases coming from the middle class, have indebted themselves of thousands of dollars and are forced to take out loans to pay for their studies if they expect to attend a good school. These young men and women have not even started working yet, but are already weighed down by dreadful bills that they will need to pay off once their diploma in hand.
An online Forbs acticle (January 29th 2013) revealed the mindblowing sum, a $27,000 loan taken out, on average, per grad student to pay for studies and living expenses. This is a direct result of increasingly expensive college tuitions. The average academic year costs $22,270 for in-state public college and $43,289 for private college. By contrast, Canadian education costs $5,974, $933 in Germany and only $585 in France. So why must those wishing to receive higher education in America spend so much ? How come Europe has figured out a way to make school affordable ? The upper and lower classes either have the ability to pay without needing to worry or get help from the State and are offered their education if they are deserving and have proven how hard they’ve worked, which is a competition in itself with so many in that position and not enough grants.
Something that should be within everyone’s reach is often unattainable, for simple financial issues when the only thing that should be stopping today’s youth is the amount of work invested – and not the amount of money at your disposal in the bank. Finally, without a diploma a country sees a declining number of schooled citizens, a population becoming more and more ignorant and a recession in the economy.
