Today, March 1st, an article was posted on cnn.com over the issue of education. The issue revolves around the amount of students who are dropping out of school. The article states that the “trend in schools graduation rates are below 60 percent.” President Obama is granting $3.5 billion in attempt uplift 5,000 schools within five years. Some of the negative components that are adding to this problem are underperforming teachers, and lack of parent involvement. Obama states that these problems are planned to be approached in this whole process. In the article Obama states “Roughly 1.2 million students drop out of school every year, according to the White House. About half of the dropouts are Latino or African-American.” (Obama, cnn.com) From this high number of drop out students our country as a whole looses $320 billion a year. Because our country is loosing money from this, I believe this is Obama`s reason for putting money into the education department to try and get it back on track. Along with trying to turn education around for financial purposes, it is also so those who have a chance to get an education actually receive one, and a good one. Those students who are in school now, are the future for our country, and therefore are in need of a good education.
Milton Friedman would agree with what Obama is doing. I think he would approve of his involvement in trying to better the education system. Although he believes the government should be limited to national defense, he also believes that the government should address the issues that the market cannot control. I believe Friedman would say if the government didn’t take control of this, education would just continue to get worse and worse. As citizens we are obligated to pay taxes, and a portion of that goes towards schools. If people didn’t pay those taxes because they didn’t use the schools, the whole education system would go down the drain.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/01/obama.education/index.html
your outlook is very interesting. But I must add, I agree with you and I agree that Friedman would support Obama's funding of schools but let's break this down.
ReplyDeleteI understand that "we are the future" going to school is very important and we need to realize that we should not be MADE to go to school, but it is a privilege. In the past women were not able to go to school and receive a proper education, not only should we go to school, we should want to go to school. The problem that is happening is in the media. Kids are exposed to crap that influences them negatively, causing bad behavior. A change in today's next generation needs to come about before we become a civilized nation where school is a want, not just a need.
I'm not sure if Friedman would completely agree with this. He might argue that if schools were private the would run better, but he might also make the arguement that you make which is that private companies would not be able to control education like the government can.
ReplyDeleteI would also want to add on to what Inna was saying about school being a privelage. But I think education should be a right but we should treat it as a privileage, which it is.
I guess I agree that what Obama is doing is the right thing. Having the experience of being a Chicago Public School student, it is understandable that more money should be put into education systems. Students should not have to deal with learning from "teachers" that do not have the capability to teach the right material effectively. It is also an issue that a lot of students have to go to crappy schools that do not have good material for their students to use and if the school looks bad as well.
ReplyDeleteBut in some way, I think that Inna is right, that the media plays a huge part in students dropping out and not finishing their educational career. I solely wish that more people would take school seriously and not treat it as something that they can just freely throw away.
I agree with Josh. Friedman would say that since that schools should be privatized because they can educate the children more efficiently and react quicker to changes in the economy. If schools were privatized, Obama would not need to give out money because the schools would be under the control of private companies and it will be there job to deal with any problems. However, since public schools are under the control of the government, I agree that what Obama is doing is great. Schools need more funding and Obama is giving them that.
ReplyDeleteEducation is the basis of society. I totally agree with you:” he also believes that the government should address the issues that the market cannot control.” For Friedman, government can do some things that might conceivably be done the market but that technical or similar condition render it difficult to do in that way, like technical monopoly. What’s more, government can collect funds effectively to support the development of schools.
ReplyDeleteBecause the school is so important for our society, it should not merely be private.
I believe Friedman would agree with this because he is focusing on the whole nation. Friedman believes the government should only interfere with things that affect the whole nation. Obama putting money into school systems in general affects the whole nation. School is one of the most important in young children's life and Obama needs to do something to stop kids from dropping out.
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