Why is all this money being thrown at education and yet our education still ranks low when compared to the rest of the developed world? The short answer is private industry. But there is a lot more to it than I expected.
First off, this system that the federal government has in place about test scores determining funding is broken. I understand it is an incentive for teachers to perform well, but there are so many other factors that determine students’ performance. For example, we can consider class and how lower class students do not have access to the materials that upper class students do. Lower class students are thus forced to learn the same material as upper class students, but with less resources. How is that fair??? When it comes to money and student test scores, correlation is not always causation. The problem is that money dictates most things in life and education is no exception. This article leads the reader through a history of how the United States education system become broken. Essentially, big venture capitalists wanted to stay on top with no one in their way, so Rockefeller decided to launch a nationwide public education initiative. Originally, I thought stuff like Common Core and NCLB made lots of sense since if kids are all on the same page, we can all progress together in an egalitarian society. Even if this was true, I am naive in that I did not think for a second that it was to put an equal hold on students and the future. This Common Core initiative is owned by a big overseas company, which only has interest in making money. What better way to do that than to make every school in America buy your books and supplies? This is a recent change, but according to the article, this has been going on for years. All the big players had a stake in it and when people tried to expose them, like Dodd’s committee did, they were shut down. It is all a big ploy to make the rich richer without any real concern for students’ well being. What is important to them is that students taught things that will progress the economy, making venture capitalists richer. Modern events like the Tucker plan have genuinely scared me. It feels like my whole I was raised with this mindset. “If I go to school, you will get a good job.” That is what I was told my whole life. It is all focused on the job and money and not true knowledge. The problem is I don’t know how to change that. I want to get a good education to ‘get that job” because i'm afraid that I am going to amount to nothing. I’m caught in the system. I am stuck in the tower.
I could take this a step further and suggest that education reform in itself leads towards corruption.
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