The Privatization Of Education

The education provided to students in our secondary learning programs in the United States has become under scrutiny. The government has channeled its concerns for this issue, and has propelled school reforms to the forefront of the nation’s priorities. The Department of Education along with the Obama Administration understands that there has been an inability of students in grades K-12 to capitalize on higher learning, and the problems resides within the techniques that are employed by our educators and their methodology. With the privatization of schools threatening the traditional learning institutions, the race is on. A competition created by the government for states to receive $4 billion in grants, has states developing a system that …show more content…
Teachers and their profession are being demoralized by the expectations set by the Race to the Top program. Ravitch, (2014) explains that our educators are responsible for the test scores of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian kids being at their highest since the National Assessment Of Education Progress started in 1970 (p. 155), the blame for low test scores should be put on the lack of support that the Department of Education has given to poor and segregated kids in poverty stricken societies. However, Schroth (2016) presents a different stance to Ravitch, stating how college professors encounter high school graduates who lack the ability to read a book, write a sentence, have no regards for grammar, and cannot stand up and speak (p. 25). Unlike Ravitch, Schroth believes that the training received by today’s teachers from these poor programs and the laziness that the graduates of these programs exhibit, has been pushed on the students who in turn displays their lack of knowledge at the next level of higher …show more content…
This definitely was not how Schroth (2016) and Levine (2016) saw the situation, not only did Levine point out that students were behind in grade, he asserted the fact that teachers needed to adjust their methods and Schroths’ statement supported Levine, because he believed that teachers were failing students, as they were enrolling in college, lacking the basic common core fundamentals to be successful. Atkenson, S., & Will, M. (2014) explained how charter schools in certain states were successfully implementing the requirements set forth by the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, while Doherty, Walsh, Jacobs, and Neuman-Sheldon (2010, p.18) held a different position, explaining that states that struggled, lacked the appropriate people to get them to the next level.
With influential leaders swaying to the side of charter schools, Nick (2010) and Levine (2014), provided detailed evidence how foundations that were supported by billionaire philanthropists, were financially supporting the needs and requirements of these institutions. Ravitch goes on to say, that due to the lack of the same financial support by the government