Despite the many advancements in technology nowadays, a lot of people throughout the world still live in poverty and lacking even in the most basic of services. Many third world countries lack sufficient housing for the poor, access to clean water, regular food supply and so much more. While we can only see mostly good things on social media, many nations are actually ravaged by poverty and war and citizens are displaced leaving them with hungry tummies and devoid of material possessions.
While there is little we can do once nation leaders decide to attack each other, a good education can change your destiny and open up better opportunities in life. You need not suffer in an environment devoid of opportunities by chasing your dreams yourself and not wait for things to happen. In a world that is becoming increasingly global, competition is tough as people from different parts of the world compete for the same work positions in the digital world. The advantage, though, is that many new opportunities opened up that weren’t there before when the Internet still haven’t dominated the world. But despite how far we have come in the field of technology, the opposite could be said about the quality of our education.
Buoyed by Donald Trump’s championing of a voucher system—and cheered on by his education secretary Betsy DeVos—Arizona just passed one of the country’s most thoroughgoing policies in favor of so-called “school of choice.” The legislation signed by Governor Doug Ducey allows students who withdraw from the public system to use their share of state funding for private school, homeschooling, or online education.
Making educational funding “portable” is part of a much wider political movement that began in the 1970s—known to scholars as neoliberalism—which views the creation of markets as necessary for the existence of individual liberty. In the neoliberal view, if your public institutions and spaces don’t resemble markets, with a range of consumer options, then you aren’t really free. The goal of neoliberalism is thereby to rollback the state, privatize public services, or (as in the case of vouchers) engineer forms of consumer choice and market discipline in the public sector.
Many were actually against the appointment of DeVos as the Education Secretary but the sentiments of the masses do not really matter that much to President Trump, who knows so little as well about Politics as his appointee. But hopefully, he proves the naysayers wrong and gives importance to the education of the American youth if he really wants to make America great again.
Just weeks after President Donald Trump proposed axing $9 billion in federal education programs, he said his administration is planning to “spend a lot of money” on education in order to increase the number of students graduating with the skills needed to fill current employment gaps.
“We’re going to spend a lot of money … and we’re going to get some great talent having to do with education because there is nothing more important than education,” he said at a town hall for CEOs Tuesday morning.
The comments were in response to a question about how the administration might help better prepare students to graduate with the skills CEOs are looking for, in particular through the expansion of apprenticeship programs and public-private partnerships.
When you look closely, it is easy to understand why the American economy has suffered badly over the years. It is because more American youth end up joining the workforce early on rather than going to colleges and universities and earning their degrees. The tuition fee is so expensive that even those who manage to graduate are deep in debt even years after they graduated. Aside from that, the world is changing, so is the marketplace. The job mismatch is more evident than ever with many students graduating not possessing the right skills needed by most companies.
Technology is advancing at such a fast rate. Students should be aware of all these advancements if they want to stay competitive and be hired by the best companies in the country. Another problem that also hurts the job prospects of many Americans is that many companies hire from off-shore to save money without sacrificing quality. If the American workforce can provide the manpower needed by these companies, they no longer need to hire employees from thousands of miles away. All these are only possible if the government can prioritize education over other things like warfare and defense. The country needs to get back on track and it needs smart and skilled workers with a degree on their belts to give a boost to the country’s failing economy.