Currents
March 2016
3
The Dumb American
A
fter decades of the status
quo, with every level of
government at odds with its
cohorts and constituency over
educational spending, reform and
results, it is time for both the
Teacher's Union and federal, state
and local governments to admit
that the educational status quo is
failing the student and the country.
The U.S. ranked 21 out of 23
countries in math and 17 out of
19 countries in problem solving
in an October 2013 study by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which
surveyed more than 150,000
people age 16 to 65 in 24 different countries.
America's results for literacy
were disappointing, but mathematics and problem solving
proved to be especially embarrassing for a nation that has for-
merly reigned as a leader of innovation and technology.
In fact, the Wall Street Journal
reports that the majority of graduate students studying science
and technology at American universities are not Americans, but
Chinese and South Koreans.
Changing Demographics
In 1997, the U.S. had 46.1
million public school students, of
which 63.4% were white. Since
1997, the number of white students has declined by 15%,
falling from 29.2 million to 24.9
million in 2014. While whites
will still outnumber any single
racial or ethnic group this school
year, their overall share of the
nation's 50 million public school
students is projected to drop to
49.7%.
Non-Hispanic white students
are still expected to be the
largest racial group in the public
schools this year at 49.8 percent.
But, according to the National
Center for Education Statistics,
minority students, when added
together, will now make up the
majority.
About one-quarter of the
minority students are Hispanic,
15 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian and Pacific
Islanders. Biracial students and
Native Americans make up an
even smaller share of the minority
student population.
The Economic Divide will
become more and more apparent in America's schools as the
poorer minorities become dominate. The budget for free breakfast and lunch will explode at an
inconvenient time, as the US
economy slows, the workforce
ages, exacerbated by the rise of
the robot in retail and fast/casual
continued on page 4 >
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