My Beliefs About an American Educational System

         Education is essential to competitiveness both at home and abroad. It provides training for the work force of the future and it ensures the transmission of a set of values we hold in common. We all agree we need to teach the basics of reading and writing. We also are aware that we must improve the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We know, too, that we can't neglect the learning our children need, from acting in plays to playing on ball fields, that are part and parcel of our American culture. But we should not forget that, at the same time, we need to recognize the civic mission of schools.
         Civic education, both in the classroom and through service learning, should be a cornerstone of American public education and future school reform efforts should foster an environment of learning where civic responsibilities are learned and exercised. Our children should not be prevented from learning in this environment by judicial fiat. While teaching other languages is a proper role in education, the English First approach, rather than divisive alternate language programs that limit students' future potential, should be the mainstay of our school system.
         We must encourage the seeking out of private-public partnerships and mentoring. These arrangements can make classroom time more meaningful to students and extend learning beyond school walls. We must actively seek out the specific causes for school drop-outs and work with whatever community entities as necessary to lower that rate. We must ensure we have an active process for identifying at-risk students so that we may help them realize their potential.
        Partnerships between schools and businesses can be especially important in STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering,  and math. We must improve secondary education in those fields. On graduation, our students should be prepared in these fields to succeed. Whether going directly into their chosen area of employment or through either purely academically oriented or career oriented colleges and other post-secondary institutions, they should be prepared to progress successfully without the need for remedial courses. Also, in areas where our country relies on foreign talent, we must ensure we give sufficient emphasis in those areas in the high school years so that America’s children can meet America’s challenges.
         We must foster teaching methods with a track record of success in the American cultural setting and avoid experimental schemes or methodology devised for a different cultural base than our American experience. While our children must be given the education to successfully compete with other cultures and systems around the world, they should not be forced to adopt the beliefs and norms of those foreign systems.
         Our school districts must have the authority to recruit, reward, and retain the best and brightest teachers, and our school board should ensure that authority is used. We must hold principals accountable for their schools, but we must protect their authority to select and assign teachers where they are needed and most effective. This includes vouchsafing this authority without regard to collective bargaining agreements. Where qualified teachers are not available through traditional routes, we must support local efforts to create an adjunct teacher corps of experts from higher education, business, and the military to fill in when needed.
        Likewise, we should not turn away from other common sense ideas. For example, parents should be able to decide the learning environment that is best for their child and should have a voice in what that learning environment looks like. Our school system must work with families, not against them. Administrators and teachers alike must see parents are partners with the school system and not opponents of it.  Indeed, we must ensure laws designed to protect family rights and privacy in education are vigorously enforced.  We all have a vested interest in the success of our educational system, and we must honestly consider the ideas of each stakeholder in this success, to include the student, the parents, the school system, and the people in the community in which we all live.