No children were harmed in the making of this speech, but one incredibly annoying dog was kicked several times

We are all products of the American Education system. Every single one of us has done time on the education assembly line, being filled with the information and skills so that when we're done and we get out into the real world, we can be a valuable product. But it saddens me, just as it should sadden you, to see that the products of this marvelous machine don't seem to dominate the global market the way they used to. A 2003 study by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, which compared test scores in math and science of 15-year old students in various first-world countries, found that the United States ranks at 28th, which is poor considering the standards the US has for itself as a world leader. The main causes for the deteriorating education system in America are ineffective teachers, teachers unions, and unmotivated students.

For a good product to be made, you need good workers making it. In the case of a school, this means teachers. Did you know that a recent study by McKinsey and Co found that only 23% of teachers came from the top third of their college class, while 47% came from the bottom third? Now I'm not going to say that all teachers are bad at what they do (and not just because this speech is being graded by a teacher), but I do think that few of the best and brightest consider teaching to be a serious occupation, and instead decide to go on to become lawyers or doctors. Part of this is due to the disparity between incomes of teachers and those of doctors and lawyers, with lawyers making an average of $90,500 more annually (according the United States Department of Labor) and some doctors, such as surgeons, making almost $200,000 more. But even beyond the money, teaching isn't a very prestigious career, which further disincentivizes would-be teachers.

But there is an even bigger problem with regards to teachers: the mighty teachers unions. The union offers job security and lobbying influence to teachers, and in return the teachers pay the teacher's union for the privilege of being included. It is estimated that if we could get rid of the bottom 5-10% of teachers in America, meaning the ones who are grossly incompetent, our test scores nationwide would increase drastically. But the teachers unions make it incredibly difficult to fire a teacher based on incompetence due to the tenure which teachers receive after only a few years of teaching, which essentially guarantees them their job for life. And trying to fire a bad teacher often ends up costing the school far more in legal fees than it costs to keep the teacher until he/she retires. Because of this, only one in every 1000 teachers ever loses his/her job due to performance issues, even though there are many more teachers who deserve to. The final result of this is that the students end up with a worse education. And this is only one of the ways that the teachers unions limit the American education system. The teachers unions also prevent the best teachers from being compensated for their hard work. The unions insist that merit-based pay, which gives the best workers more money, isn't fair and instead require schools to institute a pay scale based on seniority, with teachers starting at a low salary and gradually earning more as they work for more years. Their logic is that it is too difficult to judge which teachers are effective, and giving pay based on merit therefore is unfair to hardworking teachers in low-level courses and it also favors teachers who the administrators like and are more willing to give a bonus to. However, this system makes it disadvantageous for a teacher to work hard, because they still end up being paid the same salary as someone who doesn't work hard and has worked for the same amount of time as they have. This inevitably lowers the quality of work across the board and reduces the effectiveness of the education system.

But not all of the education system's faults can be traced to teachers or the teachers unions. Many times, students resist the education system, giving even the most effective teacher difficulty in teaching them anything. It's simply not possible to make a student learn when that student is unwilling to listen during class or do any of the work a teacher assigns. But what makes students so unmotivated? I would assert that our society is the biggest factor. In popular culture, school is portrayed as unglamorous and "uncool." Many of the pop icons which teenagers and young children adore are uneducated and unaffected by their lack of education. After all, you don't really need a high school education in order to sing or act or entertain in any other manner, so many kids view school as a waste of time. But society and the media aren't the only reason that students are unmotivated; oftentimes lack of motivation results from a lack of recognition, when students feel that there's not really any benefit to be had in trying hard. The only reward for hard work is good grades, so why waste your time? There are plenty of other activities which appear far more gratifying for far less effort. You could sit and watch TV, or relax and listen to music, or go out and play sports. School eventually becomes not worth the effort and we witness some of the most brilliant minds of our time thrown in the gutter and wasted.

So given this cynical view of the education system, should we just give up and watch America crumble to foreign competition, or should we do all that we can to better the education system and create a better machine so that the products of the American education system can once again dominate the global market? From getting rid of the teachers unions to respecting the hard-working teachers to giving a little more effort at school, there are things that we can do to fix this marvelous machine and put America back on the radar as a producer of educated citizens.

Bibliography

· Waiting for Superman. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Paramount Vantage, 2010. DVD.

· Cloud, John. "How to Recruit Better Teachers." Time 23 Sept. 2010: 47-52. Print.

· Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramon Menendez. Warner Bros, 1988. DVD.

· Rhee, Michelle, and Adrian Fenty. "The Education Manifesto." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Co. Inc., 30 Oct. 2010. Web. 10 Aug. 2011.

· Brill, Steven. "The Teachers' Unions' Last Stand." The New York Times 17 May 2010: MM32. Print.

· http://experimentalmath.info/blog/2010/01/sad-state-of-math-and-science-education/

· US Department of Labor. http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#29-0000