There’s a good chance that, when you read an article on New Education Policy, you will find a few recommendations for improvements in the status quo that government officials should consider. However, when you read through every recommendation and add them all up, it seems as though there’s barely anything that’s been done to make the education system better. If only there was some way for policy makers to make some constructive changes.
The article on New Education Policy, which you are about to read, is written by Ed Weekes. Before you get started reading, you may want to stop and think about the fact that you’ve been studying and writing about education policy for almost ten years. You’ve seen the Federal Role in Education Act. You know about the National Smart Start Program. And you also know that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act are sort of like the Federal Role in Education Act with a little bit more federal influence. That makes you an expert.
But can you really say that you know about new education policy?
That seems to be a stretch. For instance, if you read the article on New Education Policy, you’ll find out that the new federal Smart Start program isn’t popular among parents. Why is that? Could it be that the people who write about it don’t understand how important it is to their district? They know about the benefits and the costs, but they don’t really understand why parents are so opposed to the program.
That’s one of the problems with the new education policy. Sometimes, even the experts can’t figure out exactly why something is a good idea. That’s why there are so many proposals out there. Experts write about them, but no one can explain why a particular plan is needed. In other words, they have all this data in front of them, but they can’t tell you which plan will solve a problem better.
Unfortunately, it’s true that no new education policy could fix all problems.
However, the new ones being discussed right now would certainly improve things for most students. New, vocational-based schools, for example, would allow students who drop out from traditional schools to stay in them and get a diploma while working. Career-oriented college programs would be able to provide technical training for workers who need it now. And community colleges, after all, offer a degree that employers are willing to pay for, not just on the basis of the person’s schooling, but on the basis of what the person can do for the community.
Those are the issues that are discussed in the article. Yes, there are problems everywhere. The only way to fix them is by trying to improve the quality of education for everyone, but that can’t happen unless governments, educators, administrators, and parents work together. Educators should make sure they are offering the best possible teaching materials to their students, and people need to recognize that when they read an article about the new education policy, they don’t need to take it seriously, but simply to understand what it means for them.
