American Education Policy

Education policy is a touchy subject in America, especially with the decline in test scores among American public schools. Many people blame teachers for not helping students. Others use the age-old argument that the younger generations “just don’t care anymore.” However, the problem is more nuanced than that. One problem is that becoming a teacher is not a viable option for many. Due to the under-funding of education, many teachers have to settle for much lower wages than those in other countries. Another problem is the lack of available individualized teaching in the form of tutors for those in underprivileged areas. While these are only two out of a plethora of problems in the American school system, they are certainly dominating factors
This is similar to the supermarket example provided by Kevin Smith. Smith states that people will visit supermarkets based on a “combination of price, quality, and convenience (Smith 731).” The cost of tutoring would be nothing to the students, as they would be subsidized through taxes. Ideally, the employed tutors would be high-ranking college students or otherwise experienced individuals, so the quality of the service provided is expected to be high. Finally, with the abundance of college students searching for a job, an abundance of positions would be filled, allowing for students to conveniently find a tutor that easily fits their learning style. In short, a large number of highly skilled individuals are hired in order to provide individualized tutoring to students. While this will definitely improve test scores, it will only help those who have the means and motivation to receive
The high-rigor and high-reward alternative is intended to provide a large benefit to society after a long period of time. For an example of a successful implementation of the high-rigor and high-reward teaching policy, one may look to Finland. Finland’s education system transcended from mediocre at best to one of the greatest in the world in a span of seventy-five years. While a large number of factors were involved in the transcendence of Finland’s education system, it can be largely attributed to the raised status of educators (D’Orio). However, the tutor-abundance alternative is arguably easier to implement. Tutors employed by schools is a tried-and-true method of improving test scores of individuals that are able to afford it. With a mass movement towards more tutoring, a large difficulty of this alternative would be to present government-subsidized tutoring as appealing to both policymakers and potential