Public school education should be a strong base in the United States. This where a majority of our next doctors, lawyers, chefs, soldiers, teachers, athletes and many other titles come from for our next generation. However, the system right now is designed to fail our students, teachers, school administrators, and parents. It’s not giving our next generation the tools they need to succeed.

The system is based on standardized testing which many students struggle with because you don’t learn anything through it nor do I believe it tells you how smart a kid is. Everybody learns and understand things a different way. If you don’t understand the way that the test or system is given then it completely demoralizes you. Cause you know you can understand the material, you know you can do well in that class but only if you are taught and tested the way you are capable of. Einstein once said “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Only a portion of students are learning and testing the best way for them while the rest are looked at as bad students. When in reality they are not bad students but they constantly told that getting C’s, D’s and F’s. Yes, there are a few bad apples that don’t care about their education or put in the time to do well but many of them do care. Majority of students that do poor in class do want to succeed, it just hard to when you don’t learn the way teacher is asking you to and looked down upon because of it. Different types of teaching and testing should be more of a priority, especially for grade school. Because if a kid is already demoralized and feels like he incapable of succeeding in school at such a young age then it will likely put him on the wrong path. The system failed the kid, the kid didn’t fail the system.

Teachers are having to reach out of their own pocket for supplies for their classrooms. They don’t get paid enough to do that on a year to year basis. Public school teachers are getting paid around 50,000$ year. Some states it is less. This pushes away job satisfaction. A teacher should not have to pay the price for their own materials when the school should do it. The low pay also pushes away students wanting to become teachers. Most students are already going to be in thousands of debt from undergraduate school and graduate school in college, you don’t want to be in the position from there to be paying a low paying job. Teachers are required to do more than ever with class room sizes getting bigger while staff isn’t. Most do their best to help every student that they can. With a classroom sizes getting bigger that kid that needs a little more extra help does not get it, cause his classmates need help to and the teacher tries to get to everyone at least once. Too many students per classroom for one teacher to handle.

Public Schools are not properly funded. The funding that public schools receive is not spread out equally. Typically the schools in districts with more poverty are given less. It unfair those students in that area. We don’t have control on where we come from. They should be given similar resources as the kid that lives in Beverly Hills. In https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2018-02-27/in-most-states-poorest-school-districts-get-less-funding20 states areas with the highest poverty within those states were given less funding to their public schools. That inexcusable to allow in this country. We should do better for our kids, the next generation, and the future of this country.

The Department of Education is headed by Betsy Devos, a Trump cabinet pick that should have not gotten through. She got confirmed after VP Mike Pence broke a tie. She has no experience in education at all besides supporting religious charter schools. None of her kids or her went to public schools. There is nothing that qualifies her for this position. And she is the head of public school education which needs a lot of help. All she has done is rescind Obama's guideline for campuses to investigate thoroughly and quickly on sexual assault cases and try to force god into public schools which is unconstitutional. The education system is failing in this country and person in charge to help fix does not know anything about public school education.

I feel like there are solutions and ideas that could make the system better than it is because the current state is just not good. Schools need to be funded equally. It should not matter on the area you are in or the school's standardized test scores. We need to get rid of standardized testing because it is just a way to tell a kid they are dumb when they are not. S.A.T and A.C.T testing should be all gone. It’s only there for profit. Teachers need a much bigger salary. This country needs to make it so teachers can live a comfortable lifestyle. We need more teachers and not soldiers. Fifteen students per class should equal one teacher. This will take pressure off teachers having to help 30-40 students at once. Students benefit because more of their questions will be asked and they get to know their teacher better.

And lastly, public education needs a Secretary of Education that actually cares for it. Somebody that understands that student that struggles with reading. Somebody that understands that parent that is trying to get proper help for her kid so they can succeed. Somebody that understands that teacher when they say these textbooks we are teaching are 30 years outdated and we need new ones. Somebody that understands that school counselor when they say that girls are starting to become fearful about coming out about being sexually abused over the new policy. And somebody that understand that school administrator when say enough is enough with these school shootings.

We can do better than what we have shown.