Re-imagining Education for a Post-Covid Society

Let’s be honest with ourselves, the public education system in the United States has been failing our kids for the last several generations with each year, it only gets worse. We continue to let this tragedy continue to affect the futures of our kids and our country. In the ’50s and 60’s the golden standard of getting somewhere in this country was graduating High School, and receiving your High School Diploma, times have drastically changed and in today’s world to have a higher chance of being successful you must have some type of higher education, or a serious drive to want to be successful. We must demand better for ourselves and the future of our country. 

The idea that kids don’t go to college, just because they just can’t afford it really should worry you. Being able to go to college shouldn’t be a class or a wealth issue, this isn’t about supporting Universal “Free” College, because I don’t What this is about, however, is setting our country’s youth on a pathway for success. Equal opportunity is only possible, is if we have the same high-level education throughout the country and that all begins in the public educational system. We must set up pathways for our kids to be successful.

To do that I propose completely rethinking the entire public educational system, the K-12 program simply just doesn’t work anymore. Part of my proposal is adding two more years to the existing twelve we could ensure that every student would get an Associates Degree, or a Technical Training Degree free of charge, meaning graduates from public schools would not only receive their general High School Diploma but also an Associates Degree, or a Technical Diploma by enacting just this change would modernize our current educational system.

First:

We must audit each public school to make sure they are being funded to provide the best educational experience that we can provide, making sure each has modern textbooks, computers, and other educational tools that other higher funded schools have. No teacher should have to buy things for his or her classroom, because they’re denied due to “not” having enough funding

Second:

We set up an oversight committee that is responsible for making sure that schools get these funds, are put to good use, and to make sure the school isn’t wasting that funding with frivolous spending. Also to make sure that these schools are getting the money, and it isn’t being held up by red tape.

Third:

We have to implement a diverse way of teaching meaning, have the standard education until middle school, we must also push towards their interests in science, technology, cooking, and others. That way by the high school students will know what they’re interested in, instead of pushing people into the generalized education that we push every kid now through, so we can make it more individualized education for each student so we could then expose them to the different subjects that peak their interests, instead of the generalized teaching we have now. With that being said there must be core education in Technology, Science, and History.

Fourth:

We must make sure that our teachers are being paid well. We cannot make them work 2 or 3 different jobs just to scrape by, because they’re being paid so little. Teachers are just like you and me, they have families, and bills to pay, so they can focus on their jobs, we must make it easier for them not to have to worry about their day-to-day life. With that being said we also have to make it easier to get rid of bad teachers who refuse to teach and are just there to get a paycheck.

Fifth:

Covid-19 has proven that there is one major problem that affects almost all parts of this country, our infrastructure is failing, and it’s now affecting the quality of our public education. More than 25% of the US does not have access to high-speed internet, with 40% of rural communities not having internet access at all. The digital divide vastly is affecting the number of opportunities that our kids and communities have. We must pass an actual infrastructure bill that addresses this.

Whether or not you agree with my points, we can agree that our public education system is failing us. Now how do we get meaningful change in our educational system, that’s a tough question, both parties have promoted education reform, each party promises something they never get done because they’re too worried about getting re-elected and they don’t want to make any type of meaningful change that may cost them re-election. Ultimately the responsibility falls on us, to demand our politicians work for we the people again, not for their special interest groups. It's time for a change.

The whole purpose of this essay, this blog, is to hopefully open your mind and to help you see a different way of thinking. I'm not a writer of policy, I'm just someone like you who is fed up with the broken systems that our elected officials refuse to fix.