Failing the next generation through education

When children grow up, their dreams of what they want their careers to look like always seem to change. Parents lovingly support them when their goals of being a cowboy or an astronaut change to being an architect, lawyer or doctor. 

Americans around the country are told to work hard through each stage of schooling to learn the necessary skills to be productive members of society. Once that initial education is completed, they are rewarded with a chance to attend the universities of their choice and expand their knowledge. 

That isn’t what is happening, though. 

As President Donald Trump begins to gut the Department of Education, with the help of the Supreme Court, schools have undergone a significant transformation over the last two decades. Students are not being taught skills that were once thought to be essential for academic institutions. 

What’s going on in the college ranks is even worse. 

Not long ago, a college degree was the be-all and end-all for young adults. Gaining valuable knowledge from professors in the field they are studying was always supposed to be the primary focus of attending any institution. 

Now, students are forced to take on thousands of dollars in debt to attend universities in the state where they have lived or outside their home state. In addition to the mountain of cash colleges now charge, young adults are tasked with finding additional funds for housing, books and food on campus. 

The average cost of New York tuition for out-of-state individuals can exceed $60,000 a year. Manhattan University, for example, is estimated to cost over $55,000 per year, including housing, food plans and extra fees, regardless of where an applicant is coming from. 

Some students are lucky enough to pay for those yearly costs out of pocket, while others are fortunate to receive help from their parents or other family members. Those with neither option available have no choice but to take out loans at a massive rate. 

They are already starting at a disadvantage. 

Those disadvantages grow once they graduate from college. Jobs throughout the country are being derailed for various reasons. Layoffs and reorganizations are a staple of the current life on the open market. 

Parents tell their children they can accomplish their goals by working hard and persevering. 

But that isn’t happening, either. And the reason for it comes down to the education system. 

Funding for schools around the country is primarily based on test scores. If a school system has a high average of test scores in the classroom, it can receive more funding. Schools with lower test scores struggle to catch up. 

That means teachers are more concerned with students passing tests on a piece of paper than with actually preparing them for life. Students are not adequately prepared to get a job because they must focus on the weekly test that arrives to show they understand the material. 

The same thing happens in college. Midterms and final exams are required in most institutions, and material is taught for a three-hour exam, during which most students forget what they have learned the second they walk out the door. 

Nothing is being truly retained; it is just memorized to pass an exam and get a piece of paper that says they remember things well. 

Students are being taught to pass tests, not how to prepare for life’s challenges. They go into thousands of dollars in debt for that very reality. 

At its core, this fact is why education has failed the next generation. 

Young adults are stuck. They have a degree that doesn’t help them, crushing debts and little knowledge of how to make it in the real world. 

And it all goes back to the education sector — a place where test scores are the only things that matter, not the preparation of the next generation for what life is about to throw at them.

Until things change, our children will continue to be set up to fail in the worst possible ways. That should be something to think about for parents as they prepare to send their kids off to school for another year in just about a month. 

An emphasis on the quality of the education our younger generation is given must be the focus moving forward.