American education is stagnating

With September slowly creeping by, I’m noticing that students all around campus seem to be hitting a wall of academic endurance.

The excitement of being back on campus is gone, and in its place is the stress and boredom that school brings.

But as you slog through your assignments and grumble about waking up early for class, remind yourself that your education is worth it.

With the current economy, a good education is becoming more and more vital to staying ahead in the world.

That’s not just on a personal level, either.

Citizens’ education is going to play a vital role in shaping how America will fare in generations to come.

Sadly, either America can’t or just refuses to see this, and we’ve allowed our educational system to rot.

If there is a center to the rot of American education, it must be its educators.

But the importance of educators seems to have been lost on us, judging by teachers’ salaries. 

The average starting salary is about $34,746, compared to the national starting average of college graduates of $44,020.

These low salaries are coupled with the terrifying tuition costs graduates must face after graduation.

The average American college student can expect to rack up $27,200 to $34,000 in debt, a number just terrifying enough to make even the most passionate and talented of prospective teachers think twice.

And recent students are definitely choosing not to teach, as the number of new people becoming educators is falling every year. 

With fewer potential fresh candidates every year, it’s no surprise the educational system has stagnated.

America, once the leader in high school graduation, has dropped to the middle of the pack.

Low graduation rates weren’t just something America used to bring up at dinner parties to feel important, either.

About 13.8 percent of all high school dropouts are unemployed, compared to 8.7 percent of people who graduated high school.

This higher unemployment rate means less people buying things and paying taxes, something that should be avoided in a recession.

In fact, the U.S. misses out on about $192 billion annually in income tax due to dropouts each year.

Considering the fragile state of the economy, a number like this is worth fixing. We need to fix how we teach people.

We need to rethink how we pay our teachers and whether high tuition profits now are worth refusing future generations the tools to compete globally.

More and better-educated citizens are the key to America’s future in the world, and it’s something worth investing in.

­— kevsjack@indiana.edu