Public Education is Still in Crisis
By Candace Mitchell, 12 th grade
*RMT Writing Contest Winner*
November 3, 2004

With recent scrutiny directed toward the War on Iraq amid old concerns of poverty, crime and the rising levels of joblessness in America, it is difficult to believe that a “public education crisis” gains momentum in classrooms across the nation. Yet silently- as virulent and detrimental as any other plaguing issue at hand- rifts within the public education system serve to fail its students. The newly implemented “No Child Left Behind Plan” merely augments the problems of budget cuts, racial inequities, the lack of resources and teachers and the shift toward methodical learning that espouses the American public education system.

The ripple of budget cuts that has spread across America threatens to transform our schools into factory-like vacuums. Budget cuts mean fewer class periods, fewer teachers, elimination of special programs like those related to athletics, the arts, and music, reduced teacher training, fewer electives and less room for updated curriculum, textbooks, and materials. The contrast between the pervasive basic needs of some classrooms and the technological excesses of others is tragic.

The overemphasis that the plan places on standardized testing will limit students to a rigid tracking system. Research indicates that there is more of a correlation with methods and duration of test preparation than student aptitude when it comes to test scores. Essentially, students will be taught how to perform well on tests, rather than how to gain knowledge that will prepare them for the challenges of the real world. Schools that can boast higher test scores will be monetarily rewarded, mandating that schools in dire need of resources and funding be denied.

The “No Child Left Behind Plan” asserts that parents who have children in schools that are deemed failing can transfer their children to better-performing schools. While the idea of choice in the quality of education is compelling, the truth of the matter is that there are not enough high-performing schools to accommodate all students. The influx of students who have transferred from “failing” schools into the better-performing schools has caused a phenomenon of classroom overcrowding, as well as a lack of essential school supplies, such as textbooks, computers, and extra-curricular programs.

The situation, however, worsens. The plan also drains poorly performing schools of funds until they can meet national standards of performance, which is truly denying school administration the ability to improve student performance. The students in the “failing” schools who simply cannot transfer to a better-performing school, then, face abhorrent conditions, ranging from material inadequacies and the age-old problem of classroom crowding to diminished academic/extracurricular opportunities that are only afforded by a healthy budget.

The only students who will not feel the squeeze caused by this faulty plan are, ironically, those in the gifted programs, which are traditionally composed of white and affluent students. Provisions in the plan allow gifted programs to be untouched by the influx of transferring students. Thus, the children that the plan originally was designed to aid—minority, poor, and disadvantaged students—will be the only children that the plan will affect disastrously. Achievement gaps delineated by race, culture, gender and level of affluence, then, will be harder to close as administrative initiatives continue to dismantle the already failing education system.

The horrid reality of the American public education system is the true root of most issues we face today; when the only means of upward mobility is damaged, then ramifications in higher education, economics, the workplace, race relations, crime and poverty levels spiral out into our everyday lives. Former US Secretary of Education Richard Riley accurately described American classrooms as “social sorting machines, tagging some young people successful and labeling others unable to learn.” From the very beginning, rather than nurturing potential , we categorize students and treat them accordingly, a practice that is not only morally reprehensible, but also impractical: we are limiting the number of capable, prepared, and enlightened members of society in the workplace and intellectual setting.

In a competitive, technological world of meritocracy, the failures of the public education system that is supposed to provide equitable education to all augment a vicious cycle that will further a heterogeneous society, reinforce poverty, and contribute to a relatively new concern of having a whole generation of uneducated, unemployed, and disillusioned people. Clearly, the “No Child Left Behind Plan” will leave some behind, and our fates dangle in the midst of that truth.

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