Research report on education in the United States

“Why school?

Education has become a very contentious and polarizing issue throughout the United States. Here, the subject of schooling, and the dynamic changes occurring in the industry, have resulted in antagonistic and vigorous debate. Arguments have taken a litany of forms ranging from teacher pay and benefits, to proper testing of students. Others have questioned the education model of the United States and have proposed a more comprehensive and interconnected approach towards education. Even governments have entered into the discourse due in part to high student loan debt balances, rising tuition costs, and lack of relevant school. Each argument has both its strengths and weaknesses complicating the eventually solution towards the education issues of society. Thankfully, according to recent research, a disproportionate number of American citizens are in favor of increasing education spend, adopting new programs, and ultimately raising the educational standards of America (Driver, 2018). Under this backdrop, the solution to these issues, irrespective of what it may be, looks to be promising.

Why is school important?

To begin, why is school should an important issue to begin with? Why has education become so paramount to economic success? For one a confluence of forces largely economic have coalesced together to make the overall labor market much more competitive. Historically, during the industrial revolution, college and university study was often reserved for wealthier white males. Here, many minorities and women where excluded from college and universities as the country was still grappling with sexism and racism (To be fair, the country is still bearing with these issues today, albeit at a much lessor extent). Prior to the industrial revolution, 7 out of 10 workers where employed in the agriculture field which often required little schooling. As the industrial revolution began to unfold, education requirements where still relatively low as most workers didn’t require specialized knowledge to operate machinery. Innovations such as the assembly line, railroad track laying, and industrial trades did not require a large amount of specialized knowledge. As result a typical male would begin work at 18, and was often the sole provider of the income when he eventually married. The female during his period also did not have a high education as she often was the housewife, being sure to take care of the home while the husband was working.

Armed with this basic knowledge, we can now contrast the educational requirements of the industrial revolution with those of the technology revolution to determine why school is so important. Technology has now become the most dominate force in economic activity today. Here, the emergence of the internet has brought with it a litany of economic changes. Education, and the ability to learn in now readily available to all those who have internet. This has reduced information asymmetry between countries as now everyone has access to similar information. Armed with this information and product know-how industries where able to develop much more rapidly. For example, this period has been marked with extreme innovations from all parts of the world. A rising middle class in both China and India has made the labor market more competitive. As the labor markets are more competitive, perspective candidates must have an ability to differentiate themselves from others (Hargreaves, 2012). This is why school is so important as it provides a skillset that can allow employees to differentiate themselves from peers in the labor market. This differentiation can result in higher wages, higher wealth, and an overall much more productive lifestyle. If done properly, it also insulates employee from layoffs when the evitable market downturn occurs (Guinier, 2015).

Globalization and the emergence of technology also requires individuals to have a unique and specific set of skills. Unlike the educational needs of society during the industrial revolution, the technology age does require a very specialized set of both hard and soft skills. From the hard skill side, proficiency in computer science, math, and engineering are critical inputs within the technological revolution. Likewise, soft skills such as curiosity, problem solving, collaboration, and leadership are also highly sought after in the professional market place. School is important as it exposes students to in demand elements that will form the foundation of economic prosperity in the future (Goldstein, 2014).

School is important as it provides skills to enable society to grow and flourish. School is very important as it is a critical element that can help mitigate many of the negative influences in society today. As of this writing Ahmaud Arbery’s killer is in trial. Here, Arbery along with a litany of other minorities have been killed or severely while in police custody. These issues stem from many years of racial oppression, but education can help fill the large racial void still prominent in society today. Here, simply learning about other cultures can help other individuals come together in solidarity to help solve many of these issues constructively. However, due to a serve lack of education and critical thinking many people are relegated to retreating to their social media silos, unable to understand the views of the other party. Having a basic foundation of learning about others, learning different perspectives, and making well informed judgements based on the facts presented, are all elements of critical thinking. School is important as it allows individuals to practice and perfect these skills to the benefit of not only themselves but to society overall. It is my belief that a better educated citizenry would not completely eradicate racism, but it would go along way in mitigating it.

Finally, school helps generate wealth and prosperity. As I noted in detail above, the technological revolution requires those to have a specialized and robust skill set centered around a few critical disciplines. Likewise, individuals, in order to be successful must be able to commit to lifelong learning to stay up to date on the latest advances within the discipline. School is important as enables those with consistency and drive to achieve wealth and higher incomes. This is particularly pertinent to the African American and Hispanic communities which has historically been lower on the socio-economic ladder. By empowering them with specialized skills, many within these minority communities could benefit. Here the benefits of higher wages, higher incomes, higher wealth, and lower crime all benefit the community and society as a whole (Green, 2014). Having a strong education can empower many within these communities to start their own business and eventually create generational wealth. This also lowers societies expenditures on aspects such as welfare and prisons, thus allowing government funds to be utilized in more productive endeavors such as education and infrastructure.

Why is school important to you?

School is particularly important to me due to the value in provides for my family and society. It is my strong belief that all human beings have a special gift or talent that they can provide to the world. It is their responsibility to cultivate this talent or gift in a responsible manner. School is the force that enable these gifts to flourish and manifest themselves in a productive manner.

I personally, am a very large sports fan. I have played sports my entire life and appreciate the sheer skill and ability many professional athletes have. What always tends to bother me is what happens after these athletes leaver their respective sports. Many, due to a lack of proper education often end up broke, even after making millions of dollars over their careers. Unfortunately, the lack of financial education is very common. Adrian Peterson, Allen Iverson, Terrel Owens, Warren Sapp, Mike Tyson, and Dennis Rodman have all gone broke during or after their careers ended. Many other less prominent athletes have encountered the same fate. Here, in many instances an African American male is given a once in a lifetime opportunity to create generational wealth form many generations of his family. In many instances, the athletes children, and children’s children, will never have to succumb to the daily rigors and grind that many other Americans will be subjected to. Instead of leveraging financial education or the skills learned in school to create wealth, many of these individuals squander the opportunity to make lasting impacts to both their communities and family. It true is a shame as many of these individuals are minorities who have traditionally been behind socio-economically for generations (Hinton, 2016). This is particularly troubling given that racist policies have already inhibited economic growth for these communities (Picower, 2011). I personally have leveraged these learnings to ensure that education and school is a top priority for me. Here financial literacy, business acumen, and technology are disciplining that interest me personally. School is important to me as I recognize that although I am not a professional athlete, I will periodically have opportunities presented in which I can take advantage of. Through proper education, schooling and study, I will be in an advantageous position to do so (Ravitch, 2016).

School is important to me as I can also impact my community in a positive manner. As noted above, financial literacy is a high priority for me, particularly the financial markets. I thoroughly enjoy reading about stock, bonds, cryptocurrency and other financial assets. The concept of purchasing ownership claims to businesses and then using these claims to generate further wealth through capital appreciation dividends is appealing to me. However, the foundation by which to effective use these investing skills is found in education, namely math. Through my studies on investments, the value proposition of schooling becomes even more clearly. The ability to thinking critical about information, identify important variables, make calculations and ultimately use to the facts to arrive at a conclusion are all learned in school. As a result, school is important to help solidify these important skills.

Interview 2-3 Others

For my interview, I engage my finance professor and the principle of my old high school to further gauge their beliefs on the importance of school and how relevant it is in todays society.

The interview with the finance professor Dr. John Zdanowicz occurred via phone. As a international business and finance expert I believe his experience with education would have a much more cultural perspective. I first learned of Zdanowicz through my finance studies on international business. As an expert in the field of international finance and nearly 30 years of teaching a diverse array of students, I believe his insights will be invaluable as it relates to the value of education. Through our interview, much like the discussions above, Zdanowicz was very critical of the state of school and education in the United States. For one Zdanowicz believes that current education doesn’t teach real world and relevant skills such as financial literacy, proper nutrition and how to think critically. Each of these elements, according to Zdanowicz is critical to human prosperity. Here, he indicates that in particular the three issues of health, wealth, and proper thinking could have grave implication for future generations. In particular, Zdanowicz sites that healthcare related costs are projected to be 20% of GDP by 2030, well ahead of any other developed nations. However, he explained that health outcomes are the lowest of any developed nation. School is important in this regard as health according to Zdanowicz is a function of habit. By teaching children early about good diet, nutrition, and exercise habit, costs in the future will dramatically decline. Instead, due to the failure of school, many Americans are obese and rely heavily on expense healthcare for treatment. Likewise, the professor also mentioned financial literacy as another failing in school. Here, he sites the social security issue and how many young students paying today, will likely have reduced benefits, higher retirement age, and less purchasing power than they do today. With proper personal retirement savings, many young people will be doomed to lifelong labor to support their lifestyles. Schools should be properly teaching these disciplines in order to protect the individual but also the budget and solvency of the Unites States retirement systems.