Public Education System

A Comparative Analysis of Mexico and United States’ Public Education System In the United States, by the age of five or younger, children begin their long journey in the education system. The typical student completes kindergarten through twelfth grade, and is then expected to continue on their education in college that can range anywhere from two to eight years. The total amount that a “typical” student will spend in the public education system throughout their life can be anywhere from 12-22 years. Since education takes up many years in a person’s life, it is important that the student benefits from all of the factors that the schools have to offer. This paper will take a closer look at just some of the different factors in the public
This will help to further understand the factors that will be discussed later in this paper.
United States Public Education System The United States public education system can be divided into five groups to categorize the different levels of education. These levels are generally what they are like around the country, but can vary. The first level of education is preschool, and the ages that range in this group are three to five years old. The second level is elementary school, and is divided by six grades; kindergarten (5-6 years old), first grade (6-7 years old), second grade (7-8 years old), third grade (8-9 years old), fourth grade (9-10 years old), and fifth grade (10-11 years old).
After completing elementary school, the student then continues on to middle school. This level has three grades; sixth grade (11-12 years old), seventh grade (12-13 years old), and eighth grade (13-14 years old). The fourth level of education is high school. This is divided into four grades: ninth grade/freshman (14-15 years old), tenth grade/sophomore (15-16 years old), eleventh grade/ junior (16-17 years old), and twelfth grade/ senior (17-18 years
Each year, the United States spends billions of dollars on education. In 2010, the total annual spending on education was more than $809 billion dollars, which was more than any other industrialized nation (onlinecolleges.net). All of that money that is put towards education goes into funding for textbooks, teacher salary, and costs to improve the school buildings; just to name a few. Even with billions of dollars set aside towards education, parents and students are still expected to pay out of pocket for more education costs. Just to name some of the fees that have been paid by parents for their children to attend public school are; registration, technology, and extracurricular activities fees. This is also not including the costs of school supplies. These fees can become costly and set back a family a few hundred dollars each year. The fees can sometimes be adjusted for low-income