EDUCATION
In an era of unprecedented globalization, American economic competitiveness is dependent more than ever on the quality of our schools, colleges and universities. The strength of our civil society and vibrancy of our democracy also cannot be sustained without a well-educated, well-rounded citizenry.
Sadly, as is well documented in the comparative performance of our students on international tests, our public K-12 schools are currently not up to the task. In too many inner cities and rural areas learning conditions are appalling. Even in many prosperous suburbs, the quality of education is not what we believe it should be.
As patriotic Americans, we believe we can ill afford to let other countries take the lead in science, technology, engineering and math while our public schools languish in mediocrity. And we are likewise convinced our failure to properly educate our children in civics, history and the proper use of the English language have contributed to our languishing social circumstances.
While charter schools may offer a temporary solution for some of the students currently trapped in low-performing public schools, it is a moral imperative that our public schools be fixed. They, and only they, can provide a broad enough platform for the general education of the vast majority of our children.
Proposals:
Academic rigor should be the supreme value in our schools.
Getting into a teachers’ college should be a highly selective process and the training should be first-class. It also should be easily affordable for prospective teachers from any socioeconomic background.
Teacher pay should be based on merit, not seniority. High performers should be rewarded, low performers given additional training, and those who continue to under-perform despite the extra training should be let go and steered toward other careers.
Schools should move away from the late-19th Century factory model on which they were initially based and instead should resemble science labs. Teachers should act as mentors who help students discover what they excel at.
High schools and colleges should teach entrepreneurial skills and foster collaborative teamwork through interdisciplinary projects.
Learning should be customized to take into account the strengths and weaknesses of each student. Testing should be less frequent, more consequential, and emphasize genuine problem-solving skills and depth of knowledge. Standardized multiple-choice tests which invite guessing should be eliminated.
State governments should ensure schools in economically disadvantaged areas receive at least similar, if not higher, levels of funding as schools elsewhere.
A public college education should be debt-free.
Public/private partnerships should be established to link together prospective employers, public universities, community colleges and public high schools in order to create the curriculum necessary to produce the Workforce of the Future.
To sum up, we believe our schools should first provide our students with a solid foundation for learning by emphasizing the traditional “three Rs” in the early years, and then build on that foundation through innovative programs and techniques through the rest of the educational experience. By bringing together a wide range of stakeholders from business, academia, education, civil society and the social sciences, and then providing the kind of adequate funding we have always dedicated to our most fundamental needs, we can develop a far more flexible, forward-looking and effective system of public education than the one we currently have.
[Policy Hall: Domestic Policy]
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The Modern Whig Institute is a 501(c)(3) civic research and education foundation dedicated to the fundamental American principles of representative government, ordered liberty, capitalism, due process and the rule of law.
