Is the problem with US Education really the Education System or is it a greater systemic Problem?

Education is always a highly contested issue that is important to both conservatives and liberals alike. While there is some partisanship about issues such as charter schools, common core standards, etc. I'd say that generally people are pretty stumped as to the best solution for resolving our education problems in the US.

Something I've noticed is that higher performing countries, according to the PISA, tend to have lower income inequality (excluding those countries with overall lower GDPs). Along with lower income inequality, many of those countries have better social programs than the US with programs such as universal healthcare, paid paternity leave, housing allowances, etc.

While teachers play an important role, so much of education takes place in the home. In the US we have mass segregation in our public and private education systems and we don't fund all public school districts the same. On top of that, some of our students are homeless. Some of our students have parents who are too busy working multiple jobs to be able to help their kids. Some of our students know that as an undocumented immigrant, it will be near impossible for them to obtain a white collar job. Some of our students have to take time off of work to help work to provide money for the family. Some of our students have parents who are incarcerated for drug abuse rather than rehabilitated. We have so many other societal factors at play that I don't think we can just simply look at the education system and say it's broke. If they really want to change the education system in America, they need to start by changing the American welfare model as a whole.

These are only my thoughts based on correlations I've noticed and anecdotal evidence from my own experiences, but I'm wondering what you guys might think. What do you think are some of the greatest issues with our education system? And are those issues really the education system itself or greater societal issues that need to be resolved?

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Submitted August 27, 2017 at 12:01AM by geriatrictoddler http://ift.tt/2wSf5Mh