How To Fix America's Public Schools

America annually spends more than $664 billion on public elementary and secondary education. Since 2000-2001, the nation’s outlays have increased 15%, adjusted for inflation. In the last 50 years, the federal government has pumped $2 trillion into American schools.

Despite an annual budget of $68 billion, the Department of Education contributes only 5% of the total funding for public schools. On average,  state and local governments provide 47% and 45%, respectively. Expenditures per student ($13,119) are 28% higher than industrialized countries.

Even with a lopsided advantage in funding for education, America's students are falling further behind their international peers. American students placed an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in mathematics and a disappointing 24th in science.

Those results were reported by the Program for International Student Assessment in 2015, the most recent year the tests were administered. Among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development the nation's 15-year-olds ranked 30th in math and 19th in science.

Not many Americans are astonished by those depressing statistics.  A Pew Research Center report in 2015 found that a paltry 29 percent of adults rated their country's K-12 education system best in the world.  If Americans know schools are failing, why isn't something being done to fix it?

The answer is the education cabal always blames funding for its woeful performance.  However, if America is spending more than other industrialized nations, our students should rank among the best educated.  Since they are losing ground, there is no evidence more spending will change the equation.

America's hidebound educational system needs more than a tweak.  Improving student performance will require a substantial overhaul.  There are many good ideas floating around, but the education establishment always erects roadblocks to change.  Here are a few fixes for public education:

HIRE BETTER TEACHERS  

Schools are only as good as the teachers.  Fancy computers, gleaming science labs, high-tech classrooms are window-dressing.  Children learn primarily from the people who teach them.  America's system of educating and training teachers remains stuck in the past.  Too often universities steer weaker students into teaching degree programs.  In Japan, educators don't have teaching degrees. These instructors are required to have a specialized skill and experience in industry.  It may be a chief reason Japan ranks near the top in math and science. Nothing will change in this nation until schools and school boards stop catering to the political bullies in the teachers union.

ELEVATE THE TEACHING PROFESSION

If America wants better teachers, it has to be willing to pay for professionals.  Research by the National Association of Colleges and Employees surveyed the top 10 categories of degreed graduates and found that education majors ranked dead last on the pay scale.  That is unconscionable for a country that professes to value education.  The median national average salary for an American teacher is $43,884.  Most college graduates land a first job that pays better.  However, just raising pay for existing teachers will not improve education.  The country needs to recruit the best and brightest for a career in public education. Then administrators and school boards must pay them as professionals. Spending on teacher salaries as a percent of the average school budget has declined from 64% to 57% since 2000-2001, according to the National Center for Education Studies.

USE BETTER TOOLS TO EVALUATE TEACHERS 

Under today's system, teachers are evaluated on standardized tests supplemented by the judgment of school administrators.  In way too many cases, the school administrator has never set foot in a classroom full of students.  Each teacher should be evaluated on the performance of their students.  The class would be tested three times a school semester to judge their learning.  Teachers grades would be based on how well the students learn.  Administrators would be limited to evaluating teachers' adherence to school policies.  Even in the worst schools, a good teacher should be able to lift the performance of their students.  If not, they are in the wrong profession.

JUNK ALL THOSE NATIONAL TESTS 

Teaching has become an exercise in preparing students to pass a state or national standardized test.  There are too many tests that do not measure critical skills needed in the workplace.  There is more to learning than some test designed by so-called experts in Washington or your state's capitol  Allow teachers to return to the basics of increasing student comprehension of math, science, technology and engineering.  Those subjects are required to prepare American students for tomorrow's workforce. With that in mind, get rid of subjects that no longer have relevance. Too much school time is spent on state history and too little on world history.

No matter how good these ideas are, the status quo will never change until parents demand it.  Parents and taxpayers are footing the bill for public education.  They get to vote on local school board members.  That gives them a significant voice in what goes on in their schools.

Sadly, too many parents are not engaged in their child's education.  They have no clue about what's being taught in their child's school and why.  They are too busy to get involved.  That clearly is the biggest stumbling block to making meaningful change in America's public education system.