Education and Its Correlation to Poverty

Education and its Correlation to Poverty

Our country has numerous social issues; one being the education of our children. This social issue is very important, because it has a domino effect on our economic competitiveness, both at home as well as internationally. This directly effects many people in the United States, including myself.

Every morning as we head to work, our children also enter the daily grind. Most Americans don't look at it this way; however, school is the children's job, and they are failing at it. The question is, are they failing because we are failing as parents? Are they failing because our teachers are failing? Is the state's educational system, enacting too many requirements to be met? The solution to this social issue relies on the answers to those simple questions, and if we are capable of handling the answers. What parent wants to be told that they are failing? What teacher wants to be told that they are not doing their job? It is my opinion that the educational system is as a whole failing in its mission of educating our children to compete in the workplace, and that that system is refusing to own up to that reality, owing to a reluctance to deal with the issues of teacher competence, the power of the teacher's union and an understandable interest in job security.

The United States ranks twentieth in high school graduation rates, and with every child that drops out, our poverty level raises. Seventy percent of students entering high school are reading below grade level. The United States, "a super power," cannot even produce children with 50% efficiency in mathematics and reading. To me these facts are prima facie evidence that the educational system is failing our children from the very start. Our children will someday be running the country, we cannot leave this task to a small minority that are the only ones able to effectively participate in this most important of processes. Where will our country be a decade from now, especially from the economic standpoint? This makes me fearful for our country's future.

The education of American children effects jobs, crime levels and our ability to compete in the global marketplace. This will continue the vicious cycle if something isn't done to resolve this matter. Failing schools lead to failing students, which leads to failing neighborhoods and increased poverty levels. The failure to educate our children is like handing them a one way ticket into Hell.

We cannot have great schools without great teachers. We cannot have great students, without great parents. We have a national crisis going on, right in front of us; it happens every day and we do nothing. The parents blame the teachers, the teachers blame the system. Yet we forget one important factor, our children.

Every day I sit at my kitchen table with my two boys as we battle the homework beast. Some