In 1981 a blue-ribbon non-partisan group of experts, identified as The National Commission on Excellence in Education was appointed to study our national education system, private and public, from primary school to college, as it related to our country’s future. This highly regarded commission reported its findings in 1983 in a very comprehensive and reliable report which took 18 months of hard work and analysis to prepare, titled: A Nation At Risk.

 

Sadly, this important report to the country done 22 years ago, concluded among many other things as follows: "Our nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world. If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."

 

This excellent report should be read by every one concerned with education in our country, especially teachers and school administrators, as well as every parent in America. A reading for the first time, or a re-reading as a refresher, which we highly recommend, will convince all of us Americans that not only was the Nation at risk at the time of the report, but that now our educational system is deeper in crisis. And, if we take our precious time to find blame instead of solutions, our educational nightmare will not improve – thus resulting in an additional de-service to our country.

Accordingly, the purpose of this brief article is to remind our readers of the five areas that in our opinion are crying for attention at all levels of government and of the private sector, since we are all seriously affected by our mediocre educational system as the commission dramatically described it. Here are the areas or challenges:

  1. As the commission concluded our problem number one is time. At present the curriculum envelope is overloaded with too many social, entertaining, athletic and other subjects at the expense of Science, Math, English, and History, without increasing the time our children need to learn the basics of a good education at a time when we must compete in a global and highly technological economy. A good example of this is Japan which dedicates about twice the time to school work for their children than we do. No wonder why a small nation as Japan has such a high level of productivity in the global economy with first class products in the automobile and electronic industries successfully competing around the globe.
  2. The second challenge we face is funding. Needless to say, we have failed as a country to make our national education system a number one priority. For example, the last legislation passed by Congress at the request of our president known as No Child Left Behind was not accompanied by the needed funding to train and hire additional teachers, lower classroom size, increase salaries, etc. to meet the goals established in the referred reform legislation.
  3. Now comes Intelligent Design as our third major problem. To make things worse, now there is a movement in our country to introduce religion into our biology classes which is already creating not only another distraction from the teaching of the basics, but also which is very time-consuming and controversial if we consider the constitutional requirement of the separation of church and state. To continue to overload the curriculum envelope even more than what it is at the present time – is insane and suicidal – at the expense of our future leaders – our children.
  4. We also have an Immigration system out of control, as another major problem, which overloads and complicates our educational plans, very especially in Southern states with low income communities. This problem is aggravated by the multitude of languages that the newcomers bring to our educational system which require additional specialized training for teachers and a new set of resources in many areas of teaching - as children transition from their native languages to English - to enable them to be fully prepared to move up toward adaptation and assimilation with the community in general. The federal government must stop protecting the employers seeking cheap labor in violation of the laws, secure our borders, and take other urgently needed initiatives.
  5. And, taxes. Last but not least, as we all know most of the funding to operate our public schools comes from county taxes imposed through our real estate properties located in communities surrounding our local schools. Thus, low-income communities are at a great disadvantage, primarily in under-developed rural and urban areas of our country. Regrettably, a new national and more equitable funding formula is urgently needed to balance out the educational funding sources of our educational system, a challenge that most our elected official don’t dare to even talk about it, much less propose the needed legislation by the federal government. We badly need to make better choices at the ballot box.

In the interest of brevity, I have only addressed our main educational challenges, at present, but realize that there are many other areas in urgent need of attention, such as the high number of dropouts, the need for additional scholarships, grants, loans, remedial courses, and school construction and repair. In addition, teachers and parents need to encourage students to supplement their learning by utilizing self-teaching technologies at home, such as online courses, books, and computer research related to subjects of interest. Finally, another area that should be addressed by government at all levels is early childhood education as a solid foundation to enhance learning very early in the life of our children. All the above must be addressed on a priority basis as part of a well-thought-out-comprehensive plan of reforms. In conclusion, we need a strong and non-partisan commitment, as a nation, to address all our present challenges, otherwise our country will continue to be A Nation at Risk, and worse yet – a nation at the brink of moral and economic bankruptcy.

Nick Ortiz