The Globalization of the American school is a very important topic in regards to the current state of education in the United States. It’s no secret that the level of education you obtain is one of, if not the most critical factor that determines your value in the global market. We are all in pursuit of our college degrees because it will allow for us to pursue and enter our future professional careers, but most importantly, because it will allow for us to better compete with other individuals for increasingly scarce jobs. This is a significant shift in the value and purpose of education from many years past, where the value of education was placed in its ability to increase one’s own intellect, knowledge and understanding of the world. However, I personally have no problem with this shift in value. It is extremely important that Americans are able to compete globally for jobs. It is beneficial to oneself and to the entire country to obtain a college degree and place high value in education. The world is constantly changing and so are demands. President Obama made it one of his missions to ensure that students are receiving the proper level and quality of education that would prepare them for the job market. I think this definitely continues to be a major concern for parents and policymakers. However, developing the appropriate educational polices and reforming our current education system is an important step in ensuring that students are able to receive a good quality of education and are better prepared to enter college and eventually the job Market. Policies such as No Child Left Behind are clearly inefficient and demonstrate one of the many failed attempts in improving school education.
Many of the political debates that occurred during previous presidential administrations, most notably Nixon in the late 1960’s, did not help address and prevent many of the issues that still linger in education today. Conservative issues pertaining to the permissibility of religion and prayer in public schools dominated public discourse regarding education. Republicans and Democrats where mainly busy engaging in these “cultural wars” rather than addressing important issues in public school education. From what I read in the chapter, it seemed as if though Republican presidents such as Reagan where more concerned with appealing to conservative voters and staying in line with conservative ideals and principles as opposed to offering the solutions and reforms necessary to actually improving the quality of education and being able to compete with other school systems around the world. Of course, appealing to voters and party principles is nothing new in Politics. I think America has a long way to go in improving its education system to enable students to compete with other students globally. Our elected officials definitely need to take this issue seriously and make the necessary changes and offer actual solutions.
Is the level and quality of education the determining factor in whether or not American students are able to compete in the global market, or are there other factors that play an even bigger role (change in technologies, emergence of new industries, etc)?
