US Education: Funding of College Students - Research Paper Example

US Education: Funding of College Education is a never ending process; it starts at the time of birth and ends only at the time of death. The importance of education in human life cannot be neglected under any circumstances. In fact education is one aspect in which human differs totally with animals. Human has the ability to learn things more rapidly than animals and that is why he is controlling everything in this earth at present. Even though all humans have the ability to learn, it is impossible to have two people with same level or learning abilities. This is because of the differences in intellectual levels, cognitive abilities and the environment in which different people born and brought up. In other words, learning or education is a process which is controlled by hereditary and environmental factors. America is one of the most developed countries in the world. In fact most of the technological innovations and advancements in human life start from America. Nobody has any doubt about the abilities of Americans and the immense facilities available in America. However, it is a fact that the quality of American education or the levels of educational standards in America are currently declining. Political leaders know this fact very well and they are trying to raise the standards of American education at any cost because of the importance of educated people in the nation building process at present and in future. Former president George Bush has introduced the revolutionary No Child Left Behind (NCLB) whereas the current president Barak Obama introduced the Race To Top (RTT) policy in order to solve the problems in American educational sector. None of these policies seem to be successful in solving the problems in American educational sector. Since educational sector is an area in which the government spends millions or billions of dollars, the government wants to ensure that all these funding were used in a productive manner. Some people argue that the U.S. government should switch from funding college students based on family economic need, as is currently done, and instead identify the best and the brightest, those most likely to succeed in college, and provide them with most or all of the available funds. However others are of the view that education is a basic right for every human and the government should have the responsibility to assist all the people in their educational needs irrespective of where the people who sought educational assistance are bright or dull. This paper analyses the above issue deeply with the help of educational systems in other countries. Entwistle (1986) has classified learning into three major categories; deep, surface, and strategic (Entwistle). Us education seems to be concentrating only the surface level knowledge of the people. In other words, most of the students coming out form American universities have less knowledge compared to the students coming out from foreign universities. This is because of the huge differences in American educational system compared to the same in other countries. For many of the American college students, education is a fashion rather than a passion. Since America is a highly developed country, most of the college students are not much worried about a profession whereas in other countries college students always worried about their future profession because of the shortage of opportunities in their home countries. The above scenario or reality forces college students in other countries to give more emphasize to their college education. On the other hand, American college students, because of the huge opportunities they are having in their hand, give less importance to their college education and give more importance to the entertainment aspect s of life. America’s expenditure in educational sector, especially in college or university education sector is goes on increasing every year. However, the intended results are not visible in American college education sector. At present the government is providing enough assistance to the students from families with low income to complete their college education, which is a right decision. It is better to create a society which has average levels of education rather than creating a society with lot of ups and downs with respect to education. In other words, the current funding method will help the poor students to get proper education even though they may fail to show excellence in their performances. It should be noted that, in the absence of funding poor students will never go to colleges and they will never get college education. In the absence of college education, they will definitely fail to get better jobs. Failure in getting better jobs will prevent them from acquiring better economic or financial status. In short, the gap between the rich and poor will be increased if the government provides educational funding only to the brighter students. It is better to have a society with all people possessing average knowledge than some people possessing excellent knowledge. The major concepts of democracy and socialism demand the improvements of all rather than the improvements of a particular segment. Under such circumstances, the current policy of assisting all the people who are in need of educational funding, is better than assisting only few people. Critics of current educational funding policy are of the view that a substantial amount of money is wasted in non-productive sectors by the American government because of the funding provided to all the needy students. In their opinion the country will never get anything in return from the dull students who utilize the governmental funding. They also argued that the money used to fund dull students should be used to increase the funding of the brighter student so that the country will get better results from them. It should be noted that current curriculum strategies are rating the effectiveness of education with respect to the marks or grades obtained in the examination. It is a fact that many dull students failed to improve their grades even though they received enormous funding from the government. However, it should be noted that the purpose or objectives of education should never be equated with the marks or grades obtained the examinations. Education is a process which helps a person to improve his personality. Education helps a person to become good citizens of the country. In the absence of education, people may become antisocial elements and the government will be forced to spend huge amounts for law enforcements in the country. In other words, better education helps people from staying away from antisocial activities and therefore the government can save considerable amount of money by avoiding more spending in the law enforcement or criminal justice procedures. Race To The Top (RTT) is an educational program implemented in 2009 by Obama to raise the levels of education in America. Race to the Top focuses on four areas—or "assurances"—that each state is expected to include in its application for grant money. Those assurances include: improving the quality of teachers and the distribution of excellent teachers; having standards in place to improve teaching and learning; using longitudinal data systems to improve student and teacher performance; making sure all students have qualified teachers and improving achievement in low-performing schools (Ross). It should be noted that RTT is an extension of No Child Left Behind or NCLB policy introduced by George Bush in 2001. Neither NCLB, nor RTT seems to be addressing the real issues in American educational sector. More than 4.35 billion dollars were allocated to United States Department of Education to implement RTT successfully. “The Department of Education estimates that the U.S. as a whole spent $667 billion on K-12 education in the 2008-09 school year alone, up from $553 billion in 2006-07” (Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’ Who’ll blink first: the unions, or the White House?). Even though, educational funding is increasing every year, the statistics show that the level of educational standards in America is declining. Obama believes that the problem in American school education is mainly due to the improper usage of funding rather than the shortage of funding. So he wants to ensure that the funds allocated to the universities and colleges should be spent only in the productive sectors. He perceives that productive sector in education is only the bright students who get better grades in examinations. The above wrong concepts and perceptions will only destroy American college education further. “The best way for a person to learn depends on the person, of course” (Understanding Different Learning Styles). One of the best ways of improving educational standards is to assist the student in his learning styles. Different students may have different intelligence levels and learning styles. In the absence of assistance, or governmental funding, dull or average students will never get the opportunity to select the way of learning they are comfortable with. For example, some students attend online classes to improve their knowledge. In the absence of funding, poor students will never get the opportunity to attend such classes or for purchasing equipment needed to attend such classes. United States should take lessons from Japan, India, China like countries before implementing reformation policies in the educational sector. Even though the Second World War destroyed Japan completely, at present they are one of the major economic power in the world. Japanese products are well known for quality and even in American market, Japanese products defeat American products. For example, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Sony, etc are some of the Japanese companies which are causing stiff challenges to their American counterparts. Japan was able to achieve technological dominance over United Sates at least in some areas because of the quality of Japanese educational system. In Japan, “the old 6-5-3-3 system was changed to a 6-3-3-4 system (6 years of elementary school, 3 years of junior high school, 3 years of senior high school and 4 years of University) (Abe). Instead of preventing educational assistance to dull students, Japan implemented an entrance examination to find out brilliant students and to provide them with higher education opportunities. “The introduction of entrance examination created a sense of competitiveness among Japanese student community” (Home-Living in Japan). This doesn’t mean that Japan denied the opportunities of higher education to the dull students. In fact they succeeded in identifying the talents and streamlining or shaping it in the suitable areas. Thus dull students who are better in other skillful works get opportunities to shape their career in their areas of interest. Japanese educational system is trying to develop the complete personality of a student rather than enhancing some particular areas alone. Japan has realised the fact that quality teachers are essential for improving educational standards rather than quantity of educational funding. Before appointing a teacher in Japanese colleges or universities, the teacher needs to prove his/her teaching credibility. India and China are the most heavily populated countries in the world. While America and other western countries struggled to overcome the recession problems, India and China succeeded in escaping from it without many injuries. Earlier, economists were of the views that the major barrier which prevents these countries from development was the huge size of population. They forced to rewrite their theories after watching the huge economic developments happening in these countries at present. These countries were able to convert their greatest drawback into their greatest advantage. At present, not only in America, but also in other parts of the world, India and China are the prominent labour suppliers. Manpower shortage is a big problem in America at present and as a result of that America forced to employ many foreigners and also outsource many of its jobs. Software and BPO industry in India has provided a major boost to the country's economy. It provides employment to millions of Indians. BPO industry in India is worth $11 billion. During 2007-08, Indian information technology industry experienced a slow down and revenue growth rate has been brought down to 21 percent from previous year figure of 41 percent. But it's still predicted that Indian BPO and IT industry will grow to become a $132 billion entity by 2012(Indian outsourcing Industry) It should be noted that India and China never tried to encourage only the brighter students. In fact they encouraged all the students with limited resources and as a result of that majority of the Indian and Chinese students are getting college education irrespective of their abilities. It should be noted that IT companies operating in Indian cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai etc are exporting billions of dollars’ worth IT services to America. In other words, a considerable amount of American capital is flowing to India at present in the form of outsourcing of jobs. If American government implement the new educational policy of encouraging only the brighter students, the above problem will become more complicated since such policies would deny ordinary people from getting college education or higher education. Survival of fittest is often attributed to Charles Darwin and, although it appears in the fifth edition of his Origin of Species, 1869, it is there attributed to Herbert Spencer: "The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the survival of the fittest is more accurate..." Spencer had published The principles of biology in 1864. In that he referred to 'survival of the fittest' twice: "This survival of the fittest, implies multiplication of the fittest." "This survival of the fittest... is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life'." By 'fittest', of course, Spencer and Darwin didn't have in mind the commonly used meaning of the word now, i.e. the most highly trained and physically energetic. The 'fittest' referred to here are those animals which are the most suited to their environment, i.e. those which are best fitted to survive (Survival of the Fittest) The theory Survival of fittest was introduced and developed by Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer in order to explain the evolution theory and economic theory. This theory is relevant while explaining why some people have more wealth or why some species dominate other species. However, this theory cannot be applied to solve social problems. In other words this theory explains the reasons why some segments develop more compared to other segments; it never proposes a solution for that. In a civilized society like ours, it is impossible to justify educational policies like helping only the fittest, with the help of theories like Survival of fittest. Every human has some natural rights and the right to get education is one among them. Government should never stay away from executing it’s duties under any circumstances. In ancient Roman Kingdom, parents were forced to kill unhealthy children because of the instructions from the King. Such policies cannot be implemented in present society. Everybody has the right to preserve their natural right irrespective of whether they are fittest or not. Providing more educational funds to some students at the expense of other students is a kind of discrimination which cannot be justified under any circumstances. Rising costs were especially problematic for students from low- and middle-income families. All existing institutions are integral to the country's educational development. Allowing only "survival of the fittest" might result in "assembly-line" institutions, thereby decreasing the diversity of fields of study and choices in universities (Schlam). The application of the theory, survival of the fittest in educational sector will create two types of people or students in America. Most of the sociologists and politicians are working for the creation of a society in which all people enjoy equal status in all respects. Survival of the fittest theory is against the norms of such social and political theories. In other words, survival of the fittest cannot be applied in any segments of human life, especially in the educational field. To conclude, the right to get proper education is a natural right which should not be prevented under any circumstances. It is better to produce a society in which all the people possess average knowledge rather than some people possess excellent knowledge. The educational funding provided to the dull students will help them to excel in some areas of their life even if they fail to excel in their educational achievements. The success of education should not be evaluated based on the marks or grades obtained in examination. It should be assessed based on the living standards of the people since the ultimate aim of education is to construct a healthy society. India, China and Japan like countries implemented universal education to all and these countries succeeded in converting their weakness into strengths now. Instead of providing excellent education to bright people, these countries succeeded in providing average education to all which helped them to unveil the talents of all the people. United States should seek lessons from these countries and should continue their existing educational policy of funding all the needy students instead of funding only the brighter students. The theory of Survival of the fittest cannot be applied in educational world under any circumstances since education is a natural right of every human. Works Cited Abe, Namiko. “The Japanese Education System - Education in Japan”. 2011. Web. 02 July 2011. Entwistle, Noel. “Approaches to Learning in Higher Education: Effects of Motivation and Perceptions of the Learning Environment”. 1986. Web. 02 July 2011. “Home-Living in Japan”. Web. 02 July 2011. “Indian Outsourcing Industry”. 2011. The Economy Watch. Web. 02 August 2011. “Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’ Who’ll Blink First: The Unions, or the White House?”. 2009. The Wall street Journal. 30 July 2009. Web. 02 August 2011. Ross, Bob. “Can Race to the Top Save Struggling Schools?”. 2011. Web. 02 August 2011. Schlam, Lawrence. “Higher Education Act of 1965”. Web. 02 July 2011. “Survival of the Fittest”. Web. 02 July 2011. “Understanding Different Learning Styles”. Web. 02 July 2011. Read More