Article written by Madelyn Thompson, 8th grade
One of the most important avenues to our wellbeing, which is medicine, is facing trouble in the United States with a report by the AAMC written as of March 21st 2024, showing continuing projected physician shortages in the U.S.
In addition, the engineering and architectural sector is also facing challenges with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that a third of new engineering roles are unfilled and architecture leaders face a resource shortage with 10 to 20 open positions for every available architect
One may be asking, why are we bringing in all these seemingly foreign topics in an article regarding America’s educational system? The answer is simple, Engineering, Architecture, Computer Science, Medicine, it all goes back to core educational subjects including math and science!
We’ve all seen the statistics, the United States ranks number 1 in education in the world, however while compared to other countries this may be true, these statistics fail to highlight the large cracks on the surface of a seemingly “high quality” educational system.
Research sites that the United States has a number of students from more socio-economically advantaged backgrounds meaning that American students are generally better off compared to their counterparts in the average OECD country. However, the US has many educational problems including but not limited to the following :
Standardized testing – “Critics argue that standardized testing is one of the biggest problems in American education, suggesting that the pressure to produce high test scores leads to a teach-to-the-test approach and reduced focus on non-tested subjects like art and music.”
Unequal distribution of school funding – “property taxes are the primary source of funding for public schools but this method disproportionally benefits wealthier communities.”
Other problems with our educational system include
Overcrowding of classrooms
Outdated textbooks and inadequate supplies
School safety
Disciplinary policies
Common Core
Teacher salaries
Lack of proper funding
technological challenges in education
Violence in schools
An often overlooked solution to some of the problems listed above which is often used in the special education system is a peer to peer teaching system where younger students excelling in their own class have the option to tutor students of their own age who may not be advancing at the required rate.
As I close out this article I will leave you the reader with a few more overlooked solution that could be a step in the right direction for fixing our broken educational system. Homeschooling, an alternative that many choose voluntarily and others in some states, are forced to choose due to vaccine mandates would be a way to alleviate overcrowding and level out the teacher-student ratio. Addressing the lack of adequate funding in the educational system is key to solving our broken education system because higher wages should promote more competent teachers filling the void of vacancies due to low salaries, where would this money come from? We pay taxes on everything, so aside from our property taxes we should have a choice where our taxes go, in this case education.
