The financial, social, and emotional security of the family unit is an incredibly important factor to integrate into the discussion when dealing with causes of problems in the school systems.
I want to do this without getting too bogged down in numbers- translation- I'm too lazy to go and do a proper job of organizing a bunch of material and links, and I just want you to take me at my word.
Now that I've cited my sources, let's discuss education. I've been a teacher of a variety of things for 25 years. I started as a kindergarten assistant in an extended day, academic kindergarten program and daycare. I moved on to teaching a kindergarten class in a very, very poor school on the edge of the Seattle area. In three years at the first school, I had 2 families that were two parent families from birth. I taught science to the public and to hundreds of school groups over the course of a decade at a public science institution, and I've taught chess in schools for around five years.
My understanding of the problem with education comes from my own personal perspective as a teacher, my experience as a child raised on Social Security death benefits in the home of a careless single Father, and is buttressed by comparisons with other developed countries.
Elizabeth Warren did a great job of tracking down the data to be able to make the case for her book and her talks about "The Two Income Trap." In short, middle class families with two income earners can be less secure. If one of them loses the job, then they are left with little means of making up for the lost income. When we cut things so close financially, there isn't any place to make up that income. If a family lives on one income, and that single income earner loses their job, the a combination of unemployment and other benefits combined with some kind of part time work can make up for some of the income lost.
She very clearly lays out some of the problems with financial insecurity in families, and she connects it quite convincingly to the idea that the double income family is less financially secure, overall, than the single income family.
Let me just very clearly state that I think kids who are raised in a single parent family, or in some other less common family situation can definitely be successful. It's not about that. It's about the lack of support, or the conditional support available to families whether they have serious financial needs or not.
I'm not going to go into depth with this, but in general, the more secure a learner is, the better they will do. If the learner is physically and emotionally secure, they will be more prepared to undertake the learning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Without Social Security Death benefits, my brother and I would have probably ended up being much different people. The death benefits made it so that whatever problems my own family had, there was always something that was reliable that could pay for some things for us.
Unfortunately, the US fails dismally at all of the things that would make the single income family more likely, or at least make the dual income family more secure. Here are a few of the things that our "comparison" countries do in order to make the single income family possible.
No Guaranteed Paid Parental Leave
The rest of the world requires paid maternal or parental leave. Lesotho, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea join us. Interestingly, the libertarian paradise of Somalia ruthlessly shoves its paid parental leave laws down the throats of the freedom loving patriots on their boats in Somalia.
Children's Benefits
Many of you may not be aware of the generous child benefits that are given to families with children in European countries. I often hear about the amazing Education system in Finland, but they rarely go on to point out the rest of the social benefits that the people are entitled to. Children's Benefits are generally paid to families for each child they have and can range up to around 200 Euros per month.
This small amount can completely change the dynamic of the working family. Not to mention that the money will be immediately spent in the economy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...
http://www.bamf.de/...
I don't know about the rest of the world, but if you are part of a vocational trades program, Germany will even pay that children's money up until someone is 25!
Child benefit
Parents are entitled to child benefit until their child turns 18 if the child lives in Germany, in a Member State of the European Union, or in a signatory state to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. If the child takes up a place on a vocational training course or is studying, this entitlement continues until the child turns 25 as a maximum.
If they live or work in Germany, nationals of EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland have the same entitlement to child benefit as German nationals.
You will receive a monthly payment of EUR 184 per child for the first two children, EUR 190 for the third child and EUR 215 for every subsequent child. You must apply for child benefit from the family benefits office at the employment agency.
Health Insurance/Guaranteed care.
I don't think I need to say much about this anymore. It's simply obvious to me that if you make healthcare inexpensive and easily available to families with children, then those children will have a much better chance at a healthy childhood and beyond.
I am a pretty lucky guy, health wise.
I never had a check up as a child from the age of 6 or 7 until I needed to see a doctor for seizure issues that developed in my twenties. Family doctors can uncover things like eyesight problems, nutritional issues, and other problems that could easily prevent a child from focusing on school. They can also see whether the child is cared for or not.
I remember my dad paying 20 bucks for the "at school" accident insurance. We didn't have any insurance, and I didn't have a family doctor. I didn't see a dentist from the time I was 10 until I was 24. The only reason I saw the dentist when I was ten is because I had teeth growing in on top of other teeth, and my Dad traded some carpentry work to get the teeth pulled. I think that's called "chicken bartering for healthcare."
Free or Inexpensive College and Preschool
Even though the word "Kindergarten" is German, kindergarten in Germany would be more likely referred to as "preschool" by people in the US. I'm a little conflicted on the issue of free preschool. Warren points out that she is probably not in favor of free universal preschool, because in the US it would simply serve as a means of subsidizing business. It may actually be an incentive for people to go to work instead of staying home with their kid.
Just a note on preschool in Finland- I often see Finland touted as an amazing success. I can certainly appreciate their success, and I'd love to copy it. It should be pointed out that Finland began compulsory preschool education this year. While the general educational system starts at 6 years of age, 70% of kids attend preschool from the age of 3. It is public and free for half day, but heavily subsidized for full day. I just feel compelled to point that out, because I think many people are under the misunderstanding that Finland just starts school at 6 or 7 years old.
Inexpensive higher education is imperative. Whether this is vocational training or apprenticeships, or academic university or college, it's pretty much a no brainer. If you run the US budget as a family budget, it makes all the sense in the world that you would invest the family resources into things like education and training. You wouldn't create a situation in which family members could horde significant amounts of the family resources for themselves.
One of the most difficult things facing families today is the problem of student loans. It makes no sense to me that we would try to perpetuate a plan that takes young people, loads them down with tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and then tells them to go have a family and be productive.
That sort of pre-loaded debt is just about the least beneficial thing that we can do for families. We need to be able to provide resources to create situations that aren't obviously a disadvantage for people trying to get a start on life.
All of this says nothing about the issue of the inherent uncertainty of the success of the super expensive college degree. When the professional application of a degree is the most important attribute of a diploma, and when that degree doesn't lead to very much certainty about your future employment, it should be obvious to anyone that many people will simply forgo the idea of higher ed in exchange for something slightly secure now.
Tracking Isn't Always a Bad Word
Germany may not be the best example, but I have experience in Germany. I attended 6 months of high school in Germany, and subsequent visits gave me even more information. Germany has some of the higher benefits, but they also have higher cost of living.
I went to school with kids who were on track to attend university. Personally, I think it serves everyone better if we don't insist that everyone get a college education. Additionally, a college degree is now considered some kind of work training. Those who don't want to go to college, or who aren't academically suited for it shouldn't have to be forced into the single option of college in order to have the dignity of respectable work.
There are other schooling "options". It may be distasteful to some to make judgements about the future of kids when they are in the 5th or 6th grade, but by tracking kids into appropriate learning environments, we can increase the chance of success for more people. This isn't even saying anything about the higher respect for individuals who do things like plumbing, electrical, auto, and so on. When you are trained and can do these things well, you are going to feel as if you deserve these things, instead of the having feeling of being forced into bad options.
The German school system allows for students to move into the university tracked school if they are initially placed in a vocational program, but who then go on to show that they are capable of moving on to a more academically rigorous program.
Paid Vacation
While we could finish the list with other ideas, like sufficient and inexpensive public transportation, let's just point out that the US has no guaranteed paid vacation for families while all those other developed nations do. In fact, Japan is dealing with their paid vacation problem by actively forcing people to take their vacations. In the US, if you are a poor family, and you have to work all the time, then you won't even get a staycation.
I feel like I have a pretty good perspective on this issue. I've worked with hundreds and hundreds of kids. The kids I work with now range from extremely wealthy to below poverty and living in federal housing areas. The stigma of public benefits to individuals is wrong. It should never be shameful for anyone to have access to our shared resources as a nation. Some people look at the issue of scarcity of supply, and they think that it justifies ownership of those scarce things. I look at scarcity of resources and I think about having a home with one bathroom. If you have a home with one bathroom, it doesn't lead you to the conclusion that one person should own it and charge for access to it.
The US is a wealthy nation. There is a perverted idea that sharing the public resources is somehow tyranny, or that having generous government benefits is an incitement to laziness and lack of success. It's clear that the opposite is true. When a country does a good job of sharing its public resources, more people can experience a decent life that is fulfilling professionally, personally, and emotionally.
If nations provide for basic support in the areas I have pointed out here, then many of the difficulties in education will become much easier to deal with.