America's Schools Are Failing

English 12
26 November 2012
America’s schools are failing
89% of schools in Florida are failing the goals that were set up by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (Mandell 1). The NCLB sets the guide lines that all schools are supposed to achieve by 2014(Mandell 1). More or less, it defines the guidelines that separate successful schools and failing schools. The problem is why are the failing schools failing? Some of America’s public schools are failing; this is because of several factors: teachers being unionized, kids losing interest, the No Child Left Behind Act is failing and schools are not receiving enough funding. The first reason that the schools are failing is because the bar that the NCLB sets has been set too high, and that the NCLB is failing. The NCLB itself is failing. The No Child Left behind Act, which was implemented by President Bush, is failing. Many educators would agree that the goals that the act sets, “every student in the country is supposed to be performing at grade level in math and reading by 2014”(Mandell 1), are impossible and that the standards are not fair, not accurate, and unrealistic. According to a survey, 48% of schools in the nation are not making “adequate yearly progress” (Mandell 1). This means that the No Child Left Behind Act is failing in 48 percent of the United States, so the act is clearly not effective and needs to be revised so that it has more obtainable goals. Furthermore, the standards were doubled by the NCLB. States are required to have reading and math tests once a year for 3rd to 8th graders and in 10th, 11th, or 12th grade students must take the test once, according to the NCLB. This new rule changes the number of tests from 3 to 7 (Popham 15-16). This rule is unfair because it more than doubles the standard that was previously in affect; this should have been a slow tradition and not have been all at once. Finally, even college professors know that the NCLB is failing. According to Arne Duncan “No Child Left Behind is broken, that 's why we 're moving forward with giving states flexibility from the law in exchange for reforms that protect children and drive student success"(Mandell 2). Earlier in the year he thought that the percentage of schools that are failing would be as high as 82%. In March president Obama strongly suggested that the law be revised (Mandell 2). This statement shows that high up educators know that the act is failing and that something needs to be done about it; furthermore, even the president knows that the act is failing. The fact that the NCLB is failing is, however, not the only reason the schools are failing.
The second reason the schools are failing is because the kids are losing interest in school. Teachers know that the kids are losing interest. Junior high students were studying a topic that required them to be active and participate, but teachers are faced with silence and the faces of students that are glazed over in boredom. One teacher comments that “ The students are so used to having the teacher spoon-feed them what they 're supposed to know....Students accustomed to efficient, predictable dissemination of knowledge were confused, silent, even hostile when told they must decide for themselves how to proceed on a project or when confronted with an ambiguous question such as, "What do you think?"” (Wolk 2). This quote shows that teachers know that students are losing interest in school and are becoming less self-dependent. Next, the repetition that the kids endure at an early age is not beneficial to them. Starting as early as the first grade, kids do worksheets for homework to reinforce what they learned in school, but the topics of these worksheets stay the same throughout grade school. This causes the kids to do the same work over and over again, which leads to kids not wanting to be creative. For example, a seven year old who does spelling worksheets was offered the opportunity to do creative writing in place of the usual worksheets, the kid chose to do the easy repetitious school work because it was just spitting out sentences without having to think about it (Wolk 1). This is a serious problem because the kids are becoming less creative at a very young age, which will set them up for failure later in life. Lastly, kids are learning to hate school. One major problem that affects most of the United States is the stunning statistic that “on a typical day most Americans 16 years old and older never read a newspaper or a book” (Wolk 2). Just a generation ago a typical day of school was similar in some aspects; it consisted of teacher lectures, silent students, and worksheets. College students are now the “poster children” for doing senseless worksheets. Schooling is now a delusion to us, schools are supposed to inspire children to be thoughtful and imaginative, but instead they have children read massive amounts of text books that they just forget by the time they get out of school, and cause children to learn to hate reading and learn to hate learning(Wolk 2). This is clearly a problem because the students are learning to hate school because it is boring, and that early learning is the basics for making it in life and if someone hates schooling someone will lose interest in it and most likely will not be successful in life. Although this problem is a detrimental one, there is an even more threatening and detrimental problem.
The third reason our schools are failing is because teacher unions are causing bad teachers to keep their jobs, which causes children to not receive a proper education. First, America’s schools are inferior to schools in Europe. America’s test scores and graduation rate are far lower than those that are overseas. Students are not learning the skills and knowledge that they need. The root of this problem lies in teacher unions; unions are the most powerful and organized voices in education politics, “unions continue to block reforms needed to improve our nation’s schools by putting their focus on teachers rather than on the students they teach” (“Home” 1). This information shows that teachers unions do not care about the children, which means that they could fail and no one would care. This needs to change because the job of a teacher is to educate the students. In addition, teachers unions causing our schools to fail are that they care more about their pay than they do about the children receiving a quality education. The author strongly states that “Collective bargaining is not fundamentally about children. It is about the power and special interests of adults. In Chicago and elsewhere, the teachers unions are in the business of winning better salaries and benefits, protecting job security, pressuring for restrictive work rules and in other ways advancing the occupational interests of their members. These interests are simply not the same as the interests of children” (Moe 2). This quote shows that teachers do not care about the children as much as they care about their own pay, furthermore they are willing to strike and deny children an education just to get paid more. When teachers go on strikes, it leads to a swift increase in crime. The Chicago school district was shut down due to a strike by teachers. This caused almost half a million kids to not be in school and many of them took to the street. While the teachers were out enjoying their free time, the students were in gangs and robing places and shooting people in record numbers (Clifton 3). This is a serious problem because the students have so much free time and nothing to do, so they join gangs and kill people. This is a horrible side effect that came from teachers going on strike, surely when they began striking, they could not have known the consequences of their actions, but that is what happens in certain parts of America. Although this problem is a tough one to solve, there is one problem that has an easy solution.
Lastly, America’s schools are failing because they simply are not receiving the necessary funding that they need. Most Americans believe that this is a major problem. According to the Phil Delta Kappa International/Gallup poll “Americans believe a lack of financial support is the biggest problem currently facing public schools” (“Biggest Problem for” 2). The article also states that “Almost everyone (97 percent) said improving the nation’s urban schools, where many minority and low-income students attend, is important, and 62 percent said they’d be willing to pay higher taxes to fund efforts to do so. Nearly 9 in 10 said that closing the achievement gap between highly and poorly achieving students is very or somewhat important” (“Biggest Problem for”3). These statistics are rather startling because this is such a problem and that so many people are willing to help fix it. With that being said, there needs to clearly be a change since so many people agree on a solution to fix the funding problems and it needs to be acted upon soon. Furthermore, funding is a major problem is because even the president knows it. During a speech by president Obama, where he wanted more money and more flexibility to go to public education, he cautions that “That 's an astonishing number; we know that four out of five schools in this country aren 't failing. So what we 're doing to measure success and failure is out of line” (Mandell 2). John Barge( superintendent of Georgia schools) notes that “A lot of educators saw the weaknesses in No Child Left Behind even when it was rolled out — that this day and time would come, It 's kind of a train wreck that we all see happening” (Mandell 2). Even the president is on board with this idea of putting more money into the schools, so the American public should do something about it and put it to a vote to increase taxes and put the extra money that will be collected to good use. This problem can be simply solved by putting it to a vote to increase the funding through tax money.
Some of America’s public schools are failing; this is because of several factors: teachers being unionized, kids losing interest, the No Child Left Behind Act is failing and not enough funding. Kids need to be more interested in school by being taught differently, the No Child Left Behind act needs to be refined, schools need more funding, and teachers unions need to stop. Clearly these problems can be solved, Americans need to put these issues to vote and have them changed as soon as possible.

Works Cited
"Biggest Problem for Public Education? Lack of Funding, Poll Says." Biggest Problem for Public Education? Lack of Funding, Poll Says. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. <http://www.governing.com/news/politics/gov-biggest-problem-for-public-education-lack-of-funding-poll-says.html>.
Clifton, Larry. "Chicago: Massive Union/teachers Strike Shuts down School System." Examiner.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. <http://www.examiner.com/article/chicago-massive-union-teachers-strike-shuts-down-school-system>.
"Home." Teachers Union Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. <http://teachersunionexposed.com/>.
Mandell, Nina. "48% of Schools Flunk 'No Child ' Standards ." New York Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-12-15/news/30522375_1_education-standards-education-secretary-arne-duncan-schools>.
Moe, Terry M., and The Opinions Expressed in This Commentary Are Solely Those of Terry M. Moe. "Chicago Teachers ' Strike Hurts Our Kids - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/11/opinion/moe-unions-teachers/index.html>.
Popham, James W. America 's "Failing" Schools. Ney York: Routledge Falmer, 2004. Print.
Wolk, Steven. "Why Go to School?." Phi Delta Kappan Vol. 88, No. 9. May 2007: 648-658. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Nov 2012.

Cited: "Biggest Problem for Public Education? Lack of Funding, Poll Says." Biggest Problem for Public Education? Lack of Funding, Poll Says. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.governing.com/news/politics/gov-biggest-problem-for-public-education-lack-of-funding-poll-says.html&gt;. Clifton, Larry. "Chicago: Massive Union/teachers Strike Shuts down School System." Examiner.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.examiner.com/article/chicago-massive-union-teachers-strike-shuts-down-school-system&gt;. "Home." Teachers Union Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://teachersunionexposed.com/&gt;. Mandell, Nina. "48% of Schools Flunk 'No Child ' Standards ." New York Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-12-15/news/30522375_1_education-standards-education-secretary-arne-duncan-schools&gt;. Moe, Terry M., and The Opinions Expressed in This Commentary Are Solely Those of Terry M. Moe. "Chicago Teachers ' Strike Hurts Our Kids - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/11/opinion/moe-unions-teachers/index.html&gt;. Popham, James W. America 's "Failing" Schools. Ney York: Routledge Falmer, 2004. Print. Wolk, Steven. "Why Go to School?." Phi Delta Kappan Vol. 88, No. 9. May 2007: 648-658. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Nov 2012.