Cause And Effect Essay On What Causes American Education Epidemic

America is one of about 135 countries that views primary education as a right. Yet, America is 27th in math and science out of 30 countries, and 60 percent of fourth graders score “below proficient” in reading and comprehension tests. Despite our best efforts, America’s International ranking has not improved. So what causes the American education epidemic? An epidemic is a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time. With high dropout rates and insignificant learner performances, it is safe to say that educational failure has become a disease. The real problem? It is spreading. Caucasian students have an 86 percent graduation rate and where minorities are concerned the numbers continually plummet. Furthermore, as the poverty level rises the graduation rate falls 13 percent, and these percentages add up to 1.3 million out of approximately 3.8 million students who do not graduate on time

Data like taxpayers lose billions of dollars each year because of dropouts, or dropouts can make upwards of $200,000 less over their lifetime than the average graduate decreasing the total money circulating through the government. These are the statistics that capture people’s attention. The facts that concern how much the economy is losing because of people who do not work hard enough. The facts that show America is devastatingly behind in learning and thinking skills. These facts are the only things that seem to drive “improvement” of education. Many strategies for across the board education and uniform learning have arisen in the debate on how to repair what is seen as broken. Yet, none of the plans that have been enforced over the last couple of decades have changed the statistics and when looking for a solution to a problem all the variables must be considered. So what else has not changed in the last 20 years: the