Education Problems and Solutions Today
The education problems today aren't nearly as severe as they were in ancient Rome. There are still quite a few problems, though. Some of these problems include the high price of education and truancy.
Truancy is defined as a student who is absent from school without an excuse. It is a pretty big problem in the world today. Students are truant for many different reasons. Students can decide to skip school, their parents can neglect to send them, or they can miss school because they cannot meet the fiscal means to go. Locally, at Anderson High School, Turpin High School, and Nagel Middle School, 1,228 days of truancy were counted last school year. Around 66,000 pupils in our country of all ages skip school every day. Those are some huge numbers! With the number of consequences we have, you wouldn’t think this many students would be truant. Some of the punishments we have include the student having to attend Saturday school, parental contact, court referral, or suspension and/or expulsion. These consequences were thought to scare people away from truancy, and people thought this would help bring an end to it. Being truant may be because of lack of support, care, and proper attention from family and friends. Other reasons are bullying or feeling unsafe and insecure at school. Also, if kids don’t feel involved or successful, they may not continue to try or feel welcome to come back.
Being absent from school has a direct correlation with the student’s grades. If you don’t become educated, then you won’t be able to get a job. If you can’t get a job, you can’t support yourself and your family. There is a huge domino effect that happens because you don’t go to school. Overall, if you get a bad education, you will have a less successful future.
The high price of education is an even bigger problem than truancy. It’s a problem in the U.S.A. and all over the world, too. In the U.S., our high cost of education relates more to college instead of primary school. Today, the U.S. has a law that all students must go through primary school, which is considered grades K-6. On the other hand, many people who want to go to college can’t afford it. The main solution we have come up with today is financial aid. Financial aid programs, like the FAFSA and C.S.S. Profile, have prospective students fill out an application that determines how much money they are eligible to receive. Schools are also provided with a budget of money that they can choose to give to students as grants and scholarships. Scholarships can be given to students for different reasons. Some of the reasons are academic excellence, pristine athletic performances, or for other needs. One example is a scholarship at UC known as the Families of Freedom Scholarship. This scholarship gives money to a student who has been fiscally affected as a direct effect of 9/11. The amount of money in a scholarship depends on each one. Some are only $300, whereas others give students a full ride. Schools give a lot of financial aid. At UC, there are over 60 scholarship opportunities and Dayton provides about 90% of their students with financial aid each year. Money for scholarships comes from different places. Half of it comes from the government, and the other half is made up from tax payers and the university. Also, for families who have tight budgets, the government has come up with a way to help. In Obama's State of the Union Address, he announced that he would make available a "College Score Card." This would allow people to compare the exact prices of colleges and make the best decision. He also threatened colleges to bring down the cost of tuition or he would cut down on the tax money they receive. Without financial aid, a large percentage of college students now wouldn’t be there.
Although public schools are tuition-free, they still suffer from fiscal issues. Money for public schools comes in from a combination of local, state, and federal funds. Local funds come mostly from property tax, but can also be filled by local income tax. This makes up about 45% of the school’s funding. The state portion of funding is determined by a formula based on the number of kids in the district, property value, and how many kids in the district require special care. This portion of the funding also provides around 45% of the school’s money. Only a small percentage of money comes from federal funds and that percentage is a mere 10%. When these funds are not enough to provide the school with all it needs, levees can be run to receive more tax money.
The money received from a levee being passed can help to support different aspects of school. One of these aspects is teachers’ salaries. The money in their salaries ensures that teachers continue to give the best possible education to their students. With some of the money, they can get new and better resources and materials to aid their teaching methods. Some of the other levee money goes to maintaining the facilities and schools. If the levee does not pass, schools become worried because the state funds they receive will decrease. There would have to be major changes, like staff cuts and fewer school amenities and resources. Districts worry that they will lose quality teachers and prospective students as a result, so they try as hard as they can to promote the passing of the levee. Levees are only one of the ways schools can gain or lose money.
Fundraisers are another way for schools to obtain extra money for smaller projects. Some of these “smaller projects” include improving the school and being able to hold other special events, like field trips and parties. The PTA, or Parent Teacher Association, holds these fundraisers for the school. One way that the money these fundraisers raise is used specifically is to the teachers’ advantage. The teacher can apply for mini-grants, and the money the PTA provides them with can go towards certain items for the classroom or grade level that benefits students and teachers. The PTA makes sure that these items last many years and aren’t easily disposable. Last year, Nagel’s PTA raised about $25,000. The PTA is a great non-profit organization that benefits the school greatly. In other parts of the world, education problems are a lot more extreme than the U.S.’s.
Worldwide, around 75 million total students do not receive an education. Of those, 34 million are boys and 41 million are girls. Some families in Africa have to pay ¼ of a parent’s salary to send one child to school. It is also hard for parents to pay for uniforms and supplies. For this reason, the enrollment rate in places like this are incredibly low. There are organizations that raise money to help support families in situations like this and try to boost the enrollment rates. An organization called the WFP, or World Food Program, provides free, nutritional lunches to needy students. This is one reason why parents would want to send their kids to school. It provides the child with a good meal that they may not be able to give them at home. Some schools in Afghanistan are unsafe for girls. They are constantly targeted by terrorists against women getting an education. As a result of this, many parents had pulled their daughters out of school. Now that security has increased, the number of threats has declined and many young girls are re-enrolling in school. People are striving so hard to get students in school because the UN has set goals. One of those goals was to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Countries are doing all that they can to help ensure that this is a realistic goal. In a nutshell, the world today is doing a lot more to give people a good education as they see the importance in it that some of the Romans did not.
Truancy is defined as a student who is absent from school without an excuse. It is a pretty big problem in the world today. Students are truant for many different reasons. Students can decide to skip school, their parents can neglect to send them, or they can miss school because they cannot meet the fiscal means to go. Locally, at Anderson High School, Turpin High School, and Nagel Middle School, 1,228 days of truancy were counted last school year. Around 66,000 pupils in our country of all ages skip school every day. Those are some huge numbers! With the number of consequences we have, you wouldn’t think this many students would be truant. Some of the punishments we have include the student having to attend Saturday school, parental contact, court referral, or suspension and/or expulsion. These consequences were thought to scare people away from truancy, and people thought this would help bring an end to it. Being truant may be because of lack of support, care, and proper attention from family and friends. Other reasons are bullying or feeling unsafe and insecure at school. Also, if kids don’t feel involved or successful, they may not continue to try or feel welcome to come back.
Being absent from school has a direct correlation with the student’s grades. If you don’t become educated, then you won’t be able to get a job. If you can’t get a job, you can’t support yourself and your family. There is a huge domino effect that happens because you don’t go to school. Overall, if you get a bad education, you will have a less successful future.
The high price of education is an even bigger problem than truancy. It’s a problem in the U.S.A. and all over the world, too. In the U.S., our high cost of education relates more to college instead of primary school. Today, the U.S. has a law that all students must go through primary school, which is considered grades K-6. On the other hand, many people who want to go to college can’t afford it. The main solution we have come up with today is financial aid. Financial aid programs, like the FAFSA and C.S.S. Profile, have prospective students fill out an application that determines how much money they are eligible to receive. Schools are also provided with a budget of money that they can choose to give to students as grants and scholarships. Scholarships can be given to students for different reasons. Some of the reasons are academic excellence, pristine athletic performances, or for other needs. One example is a scholarship at UC known as the Families of Freedom Scholarship. This scholarship gives money to a student who has been fiscally affected as a direct effect of 9/11. The amount of money in a scholarship depends on each one. Some are only $300, whereas others give students a full ride. Schools give a lot of financial aid. At UC, there are over 60 scholarship opportunities and Dayton provides about 90% of their students with financial aid each year. Money for scholarships comes from different places. Half of it comes from the government, and the other half is made up from tax payers and the university. Also, for families who have tight budgets, the government has come up with a way to help. In Obama's State of the Union Address, he announced that he would make available a "College Score Card." This would allow people to compare the exact prices of colleges and make the best decision. He also threatened colleges to bring down the cost of tuition or he would cut down on the tax money they receive. Without financial aid, a large percentage of college students now wouldn’t be there.
Although public schools are tuition-free, they still suffer from fiscal issues. Money for public schools comes in from a combination of local, state, and federal funds. Local funds come mostly from property tax, but can also be filled by local income tax. This makes up about 45% of the school’s funding. The state portion of funding is determined by a formula based on the number of kids in the district, property value, and how many kids in the district require special care. This portion of the funding also provides around 45% of the school’s money. Only a small percentage of money comes from federal funds and that percentage is a mere 10%. When these funds are not enough to provide the school with all it needs, levees can be run to receive more tax money.
The money received from a levee being passed can help to support different aspects of school. One of these aspects is teachers’ salaries. The money in their salaries ensures that teachers continue to give the best possible education to their students. With some of the money, they can get new and better resources and materials to aid their teaching methods. Some of the other levee money goes to maintaining the facilities and schools. If the levee does not pass, schools become worried because the state funds they receive will decrease. There would have to be major changes, like staff cuts and fewer school amenities and resources. Districts worry that they will lose quality teachers and prospective students as a result, so they try as hard as they can to promote the passing of the levee. Levees are only one of the ways schools can gain or lose money.
Fundraisers are another way for schools to obtain extra money for smaller projects. Some of these “smaller projects” include improving the school and being able to hold other special events, like field trips and parties. The PTA, or Parent Teacher Association, holds these fundraisers for the school. One way that the money these fundraisers raise is used specifically is to the teachers’ advantage. The teacher can apply for mini-grants, and the money the PTA provides them with can go towards certain items for the classroom or grade level that benefits students and teachers. The PTA makes sure that these items last many years and aren’t easily disposable. Last year, Nagel’s PTA raised about $25,000. The PTA is a great non-profit organization that benefits the school greatly. In other parts of the world, education problems are a lot more extreme than the U.S.’s.
Worldwide, around 75 million total students do not receive an education. Of those, 34 million are boys and 41 million are girls. Some families in Africa have to pay ¼ of a parent’s salary to send one child to school. It is also hard for parents to pay for uniforms and supplies. For this reason, the enrollment rate in places like this are incredibly low. There are organizations that raise money to help support families in situations like this and try to boost the enrollment rates. An organization called the WFP, or World Food Program, provides free, nutritional lunches to needy students. This is one reason why parents would want to send their kids to school. It provides the child with a good meal that they may not be able to give them at home. Some schools in Afghanistan are unsafe for girls. They are constantly targeted by terrorists against women getting an education. As a result of this, many parents had pulled their daughters out of school. Now that security has increased, the number of threats has declined and many young girls are re-enrolling in school. People are striving so hard to get students in school because the UN has set goals. One of those goals was to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Countries are doing all that they can to help ensure that this is a realistic goal. In a nutshell, the world today is doing a lot more to give people a good education as they see the importance in it that some of the Romans did not.