The issue of education affects the hierarchy of higher education through K, and most problems start at the lower educational levels. That’s why it’s so important to support state-led initiatives to improve K-12 schooling.
School-choice initiatives and home schooling, as well as alternative learning options, such as full-day school hours, year-round schools, charter schools and virtual schools at a K-12 level, allow a child to get the best education, and increases their chances of success in higher education.
The United States spends an average of $10,000 a year per student in public schools, which totals about $550 billion. Funding can’t fix the problems in our educational system. What can? Accountability from administrators, parents and teachers’ programs that develop the character and financial literacy of students, rigorous assessments of students’ abilities in fundamental areas of learning, and schools that have the flexibility and freedom to adapt to the needs of their students, like implementing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) subjects and more technology in the classroom.
To improve higher education, goals are to:
*Restructure, which would result in more students equipped for their desired fields and less working minimum wage jobs that are irrelevant to their education. During the 2012 election, 50% of recent college graduates were either unemployed, or working jobs that were not in their field and for which their educations had provided them no training.
*Limit the federal government in education. This includes getting rid of federal student loans, and having only private loans.
*Support initiatives that increase benefits to students who are taking more difficult courses, form partnerships with colleges and universities in an effort to improve science and math programs, and attract math, science, and engineering students to attend lower-income schools.
*Expand community college programs, technical institutions, private training schools, online universities, life-long learning, and work-based learning in the private sector to create competition for four-year schools.
Parents are responsible for the education of their children. Andre does not believe in a one size fits all approach to education and he supports providing broad education choices to parents and children at the State and local level. Maintaining American preeminence requires a world-class system of education, with high standards, in which all students can reach their potential. Today’s education reform movement calls for accountability at every stage of schooling. It affirms higher expectations for all students and rejects the crippling bigotry of low expectations. It recognizes the wisdom of State and local control of our schools, and it wisely sees consumer rights in education – choice – as the most important driving force for renewing our schools.
The first step in improving education is to acknowledge the need for change when the status quo is not working. Refinement of the current system of education and development of new systems of learning are needed to compete with traditional four-year colleges: expanded community colleges and technical institutions, private training schools, online universities, life-long learning, and work-based learning in the private sector. New systems and programs for acquiring advanced skills will be ever more important in the rapidly changing economy of the twenty-first century, especially in science, technology, engineering, and math. Public policy should advance the, acceptance, affordability, innovation, and transparency needed to address all these challenges and to make accessible to everyone the emerging trend, with their lower cost degrees, to traditional college attendance.