The Descending Spiral of Idiocy. (For Class, not mandatory)

It seems a mystery that the US is descending in the world of education. It seems that other countries, like India, are overtaking the US in that realm. How could such a superpower be lagging behind? The blame should not be shot at the teachers, or the students. It is not the fault of the immigrants. It is a lack of priorities within the government that is to blame.

The backbone of any system is the power it has to affect change. Within the capitalist system, that power is money. Money, shunted into programs, determines how far those programs go. The best analogy is that of a jet plane. Just imagine the money as being fuel. When the program runs out of money, it and the ground get friendly. It may be able to sail for a little while on fumes. And the government seems to be determined to suck spending out of education, so it is not surprising the direction that the United States system is taking.

It is easy to blame this trend on the times. War, the economic plunge, and the medical insurance debate seems to make the education downturn a small and insignificant issue. The American government has, in the past years, spent so much money on a war. Then they spend it on things like billion dollar bailout for banks, who then spend large portions of those bailouts on their executives. Then the country gets caught up in a debate about an issue whose solution should be obvious, considering the percentage of Americans that are for a public option. The reason for this focus is troubling.

The reason is that all those other issues are short term, obvious threats now. The US has been drawn into the problems of today, unaware of the danger looming just a few years away. The country may be facing the last years of its supremacy within the world.

Education should be one of the main issues within America. It determines where the country stands, both commercially and technologically. Without a good education system, high paying jobs will be shipped out to other countries, as they will have the populous with the necessary skills to perform those jobs. Even more important, the technology developed by countries who have a good education system will stay within those countries for a time, as such countries will have the priority on such advancements. Thus by losing the leadership in education, the US is starting to lose its strength within world politics, as money equals power.

More disturbing, is the cyclical nature of a lag in education. As less money is poured into education, that education, which includes college, becomes more expensive, and less comprehensive. As less money is given to qualified teachers, as well as those teachers who are already within the system being let go because of cut budgets, the education that the next generation is given is destabilized as expertise flees from the system. The less comprehensive the education given to those going through the system, those who complete their high school years are less likely go to college. The less college graduates that a country has, the less high paying jobs stay within the country. Which equals less taxes and less money within the economy. With that drop of input, the amount of money put into education drops. And that continues the cycle. It is therefore of the utmost importance, when the economy collapses, to put more money into education, not less, to secure the future.