While federal funding of primary and secondary education and federal influence o
ID: 459551 • Letter: W
Question
While federal funding of primary and secondary education and federal influence on local schools have both grown considerably in recent years, K-12 education is still largely under the control of state and local governments. How might U.S. public schools be different if, like France, the United States had a unitary system of government Please respond to the initial question by day 5 and be sure to poor two additional times to peers and/or instructor by day 7. The initial post by day 5 should be a minimum of 150 words. If you use any sources outside of your own throught, you should reference that sources. Include solid grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and spelling.Explanation / Answer
Ans;
R
esidents of the United States recognize the value of
publicly provided K–12 education. The provision
and “quality” of public primary and secondary
education in the United States is probably discussed as
much as the weather. However, most Americans feel that
unlike the weather, education is susceptible to swift
human intervention—in particular to the adoption of private- and public-based reforms that will improve the
“quality” of K–12 public education services. Not surprisingly, the media frequently spotlights K–12 educational
issues and generally purveys bad news. For example, in the
final two weeks of June 2003, the New York Times reported as follows: on the release of the Nation’s Report Card
reading scores (National Center for Education Statistics
2003) “4
th
Grade Readers Improve, but 12
th
Grade Scores
Decline” (Schemo 2003a); on the high failure rate on the
New York State Regents math exam, “This Year’s Math
Regents Exam Is Too Difficult, Educators Say”
(Goodnough 2003); and on the problems of New York
City schools, “New York State Failing City Schools, Court
Says” (Winter 2003). Federal, state, and local politicians
accept these concerns and have placed improving the
“quality” of K–12 public education at, or very near, the top
of their policy agenda.
1
Although often not discussed as such, much of this
angst can be traced to worries that have economic roots.
Parents raise concerns over the quality of the schools their
children attend because a good primary and secondary
education is absolutely essential for success in their children’s transition into either higher education or the labor
market after high school. Homeowners, even if they do
not have children in public schools, are concerned about
the quality of local public schools because they know from
experience of the direct positive effect it has on the resale
value of their property. Because the largest financial asset
held by most Americans is their home, a decline in the
perceived quality of education provided locally exerts
important financial consequences. Finally, the business
community recognizes that publicly provided K–12 education is an investment in human capital and makes workers more productive.
2
Important job skills are acquired in
elementary, middle, and high schools. The most obvious
are learning to read and write and quantitative skills
(math). Future workers also learn specific skills that will
help them in their chosen occupations (e.g., sciences, art,
and vocational training). A K–12 education also establishes essential social and productivity skills, such as showing up for work on time, staying at work for the requisite
time, and working with others.
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