Paper #5: The U.S. Education System is Messed Up!

Just as the title states I believe that the U.S. Education System is messed up.  I base this opinion on what I learned by reading, “Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital”, an article from MonthlyReview.org.  This article was authored by John Bellemy Foster.  After reading this article my eyes were opened the inner workings of reformation concerning the American Education System.  I never really noticed before how our schools, grades K-12, were run as though they were a factory.  Another thing I didn’t realize is that the people in charge of running the reform of the education system are not made up of anyone that knows anything about the students or how to teach.  The people in charge of the reform are actually large corporation business types.  This article also pointed out to me how the No Child Left Behind act actually works as well as how standardized testing is actually used.

Foster points out a statement made by Eli Broad, “We don’t know anything about how to teach or reading curriculum or any of that. But what we do know about is management and governance.”  Eli Broad is in charge of the Broad Foundation.  The Broad Foundation is one of four large foundations that are in charge of running the education system reform.  That statement alone prompts me to question why the hell they are in charge.  The other three foundations are made up of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.  Notice anything?  All of these foundations are made up of large corporations such as Bill Gates and Microsoft, the Walton Family and Wal-Mart, and the computer company Dell.  I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t feel comfortable with these large corporation types deciding how our education system is going to be run.

When I think of the No Child Left Behind act I think of schools and teachers going all out to ensure that not even a single student fails.  I think of teachers trying different ways to help students that have trouble learning the material, schools making learning more fun and interesting in order to keep the students attention so they enjoy learning and in turn learn more.  This is what I think when I hear the phrase No Child Left Behind.  As it turns out that just prompts the schools to implement more standardized testing.  Apparently standardized testing is used to; essentially, grade the teachers on how well they are teaching their students.  Depending on how well the students test on a yearly basis that depicts whether the teachers will stay or go.  In order to remain in their position, the teachers need the test scores to improve each year.  Now I think this is a good idea.  Of course I don’t like testing anymore than anyone else but this helps to improve our teachers’ skills and in turn improve on how students learn.  The drawback I see to this is what happens when schools don’t improve each year.  If a school does not improve after five years then they are to comply with one of five methods of restructure.  These five methods were to change to a charter school, layoff all staff and replace them, hand over the school to private management, give all control over to the state, or “any other major restructuring of the school’s governance.”

Before reading any further I agreed with the restructure methods.  Although laying off all the staff of a school seems harsh, if they are not doing their job then they shouldn’t be there.  This is my opinion, but then I did read further and it turns out that charter schools, which are made to help improve test scores, in some cases, actually turn out worse test scores or just marginally better scores.  One would think that if a school goes under reconstruction and new management in order to improve that the school would actually improve.  Doesn’t that seem a little messed up?

From what I have learned about this issue by reading Foster’s article I have constructed my own opinion.  My opinion is this: If a school fails to improve its test scores each year then I think the staff should have a wakeup call and start thinking about how to get the students to do better.  I don’t think the teachers should have to worry about keeping their job, I think they should worry about how to keep the students interested in learning.  If the students are interested and enjoy learning then I think they would do better on the test scores.  Aside from the issues with test scores I think having foundations made of non-teaching degree businessmen is just stupid.  I think that in order to run a nation-wide education system you need actual teachers alongside these businessmen in order to create an education system worth bragging about, because what we have now is a joke.

Works Cited

Foster, J. B. (2011, August 22). Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital. Retrieved September 10, 2011, from Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine: http://monthlyreview.org/2011/07/01/education-and-the-structural-crisis-of-capital