Proposal of America’s Education Initiatives

Individualized schooling will be judged by the advancement of the group because it will foster the students helping each other to meet their goals and most importantly accountability and self-fulfillment for the educators who will now be able to see the impact they had in their groups
of students’ lives.

Our educational system must prepare the students for a future of underemployment for many as their jobs will require less of them. They will need to occupy themselves for a substantial amount of time without drugs and narcotics. Hopefully, our Education Initiative will prepare us for happiness through the service of others. We might end with a Universal Income system and people will have to complement that by taking on additional jobs.
The components of America’s Education initiative are as follows:

Birth through Pre-K

This is a major change to the existing system. The justification for this is that research has shown that early experiences significantly impact brain development and learning capacities. By providing enriching experiences, including language exposure, social interactions, and stimulating activities, we can help optimize a child’s intellectual potential. Early childhood education programs that prioritize hands-on learning, exploration, and play can foster curiosity, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking abilities. This is one of the reasons we do not accomplish more.

Under our existing system, we expect that 13 million US students are likely to drop out of school in the next decade costing the country 3 trillion dollars. (Source, World Economic Forum).

AEI calls for Day Care for Everyone. The concept is to have price-adjusted daycare for Everyone and allow everyone to pay for all or some of the expenses by working in the daycare their child is attending. These facilities will be under the existing School Boards managing the school system. We need to standardize their design and utilize existing vacant strip centers and malls since our new buy through the Internet will make many properties available.

K through 8th grade

AEI plans to create a new position of ‘Educational Guardian” which will be very carefully selected, have certain qualifications, and require additional training. This concept is extended from the “maestra unica” concept in Italy where one teacher has the same class through 5th grade. This is common throughout Europe; Finland has the same teacher through 6th grade. The Educational Guardian will also have many resources available to lead a class in which size and constitution must be determined (We need a mixture of diverse students). The Educational Guardian will be expected to work with each student and their families. This topic is very involved, and all the details must be worked out. For example, his or her training must include how to build a team in the class and know about the different educational computer programs available and how to use them. There will be a lot of intra-grade competitions on every subject and team sports to expand the student’s interaction with others and to motivate the students to continuously improve themselves. Peer tutoring will start here to start a culture of helping each other. Uniforms will be required to remove the preoccupation with
fashion and let the students concentrate on their education.

The Educational Guardian will meet with the family and assess their needs. It is very important that what we are studying in school gets reinforced at home. The nuclear family is less prevalent today than in the past and the Educational Guardian will have a psychologist to help
students or parents that need it, will have Child Protective Services available also to assist, and will have court-appointed special advocates for students that need more support. The Educational Guardian will be a stabilizing influence and his or her success depends on improving
the family’s influence on their child’s education.

AEI Curriculum for Kindergarten through 8th Grade has also a substantial amount of information but it includes various topics over, and above which will be taught throughout such as nutrition and its resulting impact on health and chronic diseases, drug use and its impact on the individual, social studies / Civics, History of the USA, the Constitution, the rule of law, market economics which are some of the reasons that make America the largest economy in the world with a relatively small population compare to China, India, etc.

Since Kindergarten is the first year with the Educational Guardian it will be a nurturing engaging learning environment that fosters curiosity, exploration, and love of learning. It will include an assessment of each child and individualized teaching/learning will formally start.

The Kinder through 8th grade also brings a major change, the school year will be longer like Japan’s, and meeting the objectives will be fixed, and hours in the classroom will be a variable. We will work until objectives are met. A reward system for achieving the objectives will be many fun activities (field trips) to comply with the school calendar. Social promotion must goes away, the continuity of the same teacher for various years will keep the best of social promotion while eliminating the problems with it.

The Holidays will be a learning opportunity. Historical developments that lead to the following Holidays will be explained thoroughly as part of the History classes. Independence Day, Veterans Day, Presidents Day, Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving – Gratitude Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day and others. The objective is to understand our heritage and to create pride in being an American.
Another Major change is that dropping out of school is not an option, each district will have education judges to handle each drop out case if it comes to that. Parents will be held accountable to ensure their offspring’s go to school. A solution will be found to keep trouble kids in school, boot camps will be the last option but implemented if needed.

High School

The Educational Guardian that by now knows the students well, will now be their career counselor during the high school years.

High school will have the mission to prepare them for a career and to do that there will be a major emphasis discussing their choices. The world is changing, and the jobs of the future will require that it be done at a different location for each job, the job will vary somewhat, it will
take specialized training. For example, Plumbing, Air Conditioning Technicians, Cosmetologists, Senior Care, Nursing, etc. Hospitality Industry jobs.

Of Course, we must also prepare those that want to attend colleges and Universities which is the focus of high school today at the expense of also gettng them ready for high paying jobs not requiring a college degree. Many go to college and fail because they were not exposed to all of
their choices. America’s education Initiative also requires a 2-year mandatory Military / Public Service as a verification that the Educational system performed. Evaluation of performance for those two years will go back to the school system and be analyzed to achieve continuous improvement.

Technology (big data) should also be used to evaluate the continuous improvement of each student, its group, the Educational Guardians, support staff and the overall educational system.

The Educational System is also plague with many problems resulting in poor retention of the better teachers. Extending the year should improve teachers compensation, eliminating the class room violence and disciplinary problems will take away some of the frustrations good teachers feel. We have to develop a culture of Teacher Appreciation.

Time is of the essence. If we were to get going by the fall of 2025 the first graduating class to complete the entire program will graduate in 2045.

The transition from our existing system to the system of the future will contain elements of both until the transition is over.
How do we pay for this:

Medical Expenses take 17 % of our Gross Domestic Product, when the results of our nutritional and physical education is completed not only will we reverse the very disturbing trend in obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases but we will have the funds
available to spend in education.

Our social safety net costs for programs like welfare, food stamps, etc will be greatly reduced.

The cost of crime and law enforcement will be reduced drastically if we educate our young.

Our Educational costs will be reduced as the new technological innovations are applied to the Educational System.

The GDP should grow substantially as these new technologies are adapted.

Education must become a priority and the money to fund it must be found. Another funding mechanism might be necessary since property taxes lead to inequity for the districts with lower value properties. Education must be a priority in our society.

It is also important to note that whatever funding is available it must be used judiciously. The structure today has a substantial amount of waste due to duplication. For Example:

• The Federal Department of Education has x % of Administrative Costs
• Each State Department of Education in each state has between 15 and 20 % of Administrative Costs
• Each school district has y percent of Administrative Cost
• And each school also has administrative costs.

The new technologies will also reduce the cost of education and its processes and standardization to provide an individualized custom made (learning method and pace) plan.

How do we get this done.

I have spent most of my career working in the steel tubular business. Those products must follow a specification and other processes which are specified by the American Petroleum Institute. API has been around since 1917 and other industries have their institute to make sure the products and processes are specified. API also audits every manufacturing and service group license by them on an annual basis in the whole world. Deficiencies found must be fixed within a certain period, if the entity will keep their license.

I believe this model will also work for the American Education System. Better yet the structure is already in place and just needs to be adapted to what needs to be done.

The Council of Chief State School Officers, which is the educational arm of the nonpartisan National Governors Association already exists. The CCSSO is comprised by some of the best talented, trained and experienced minds in the educational field and already has as one of its missions to modernize America’s Education System. Because of their experience they also know “who is who” in the educational field and can assemble a group of professionals to get this done. The CCSSO needs to expand its membership to include 13,000 plus schools in the USA and Territories, parents’ associations, teachers’ associations, nonprofits working on educational problems, etc. The CCSSO must form the committees including representatives for the users (schools) to develop the many specs required, submitted the specifications to a vote, ask the schools to implement them and create the infrastructure to audit each school on an annual basis.

Seize the moment, America needs it.