The American Government and the US Education System

The American Government and the US Education System Introduction Perhaps the American education system can be alleged to be one of the most controversial education systems in the world. With diverse standards of education spreading across the American states, the education system has become a common challenge for the government. Some educators allege that this problem has been cultivated by the government’s lack of proper commitment and control over education policies. Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The American Government and the US Education System specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Consequently, the objectivity of the American education system has been blurred and as a result, many of the students and American population feel that the education system has failed them. Education should be a national agenda, and this had previously been demonstrated by the commitment of the federal government in subsiding education in the country. However, the federal governme nt has no control over the education once the states government takes over education funds. While the failure of the education system in the United States is continually blamed on the cost, drop-out rates, declining tests, health problems and social problems, there remains the issue of government inattention. The American government has remained inattentive towards education in various ways as can be demonstrated below. Government monopoly First, the government practices a monopoly over the education system. From this aspect, the government is the sole financer of education in the country. As a result, the government can only provide funds for education through taxes. The lack of other pertinent stakeholders like the private sector in financing education has lowered the standards of education in the country. Only a fewer private schools that are expensive do exist. This complicates the procedure and the establishment of good education policies from relevant government agencies. Te achers unions The American government allows the monopoly of teachers through their union. Major unions such as the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association have been an obstacle towards changes in the education system. Like any other unions in other industries, unions’ main objective is to protect the interest of the members. In this aspect, teachers have always wanted to maintain a status quo and oppose major changes in the education sector. The unionization of the teachers has made it difficult for the government agencies responsible for education to implement important changes. For example, the unions do not allow dismissal of teachers on the basis of their behavior. Moreover, unions always seek better payment for their members, thus jeopardizing the government effort in using more funds to employ teacher and expand education.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Outdated technology The American government has demonstrated its inattentiveness in education, by continuing to subscribe to outdated technology. This can be evidenced in the government inability to improve the use of technology-based learning techniques in public schools. This is outrageous considering that education renders a nation to be competitive in an industrialized economy that requires advanced skills and expertise. This could be the reason why the America economy is constantly importing human resource for its industries. This can also be evidenced by the growing economic competition from European and Asian counties, which have invested heavily on education. Misuse of funds The general American government has had problems with governance and management of public funds. The lack of proper allocation of funds on the basis of priority has always been a hindrance to effective education system in the country. An example of such was exhibited during the America occupation of Iraq. The American government used billions of dollars on security and war on terror and neglected other important sectors such as education. In such instances, the government agencies responsible for education cannot be exempted from misuse of funds. This also indicates that governmental agencies lack proper planning, and this can be justified from their lack of flexibility in the education budget. Standardization The standardization policies by the government in the education sector sometimes exhibits lack of understanding. For example, the enacting of the recent No Child left Behind Act is an example of how standards can ruin education. Although, the act is directed to ensure education is accessible to all children. The act does not consider the fact that education provision requires the quality aspect. In the recent years, there has been declining performance among the students, since teachers are not allowed by the new act to provide personalized lesson s and teaching techniques. The United States Department of Education does not oversee the use of a national curriculum among public and private school across the states. In this aspect, education is diversely structured among the states. This becomes a challenge for the government to instill regulations on how education budget among the states are used in relation to provision of education. Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The American Government and the US Education System specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More As a matter of fact, it becomes a problem for students who may want to transfer schools from one state to another. This sometimes exhibits unfair competition among states, especially when the students graduate and want to seek employment in any of the states. Accreditation Lack of proper accreditation by the United States Department of Education is one major reason as to why education is failing in America. Some o f the education institutions in the country lack proper amenities to offer credible education. Their approval by the department of education is as a result of corruption. Once such institutions are enlisted for education funds, their allocation is sometimes unorthodox and may not achieve its purpose. Bureaucracy The government has remained bureaucratic as can be evidenced by its expenditure on education. The government has constantly been spending 14% of its total expenses on education for several years. This renders the government to spend merely $600 billion on education in a single year. Nonetheless, the number of students in public schools cannot be sustained by such an amount considering there is wastage of funds through corruption in the department of education. The problem of bureaucracy is a universal phenomenon that affects all governments across the world. In this aspect, any change required in the education sector undergoes thorough lobbying, debating and procedures befo re its implementation. Although such may be perceived as the legal procedure of conducting government activities, such drags behind important sectors in terms of growth and development. School district boards School district boards have been another failure in the America education system. The board is always comprised of members, who sometimes do not look at the interest of the students. In any case, such school district boards prefer to save on education budget, by streamlining education through employing incompetent teachers at lower cost. Thus eventually affects the quality of education in the entire state. The same school districts are also given the mandate to control education funds. In most scenarios, such board members embezzle funds, since they lack managerial skills in finance management.

400 Million Years of Shark Evolution

400 Million Years of Shark Evolution If you went back in time and looked at the first, unremarkable prehistoric sharks of the Ordovician periodabout 420 million years agoyou might never guess that their descendants would become such dominant creatures, holding their own against vicious marine reptiles like pliosaurs and mosasaurs and going on to become the apex predators of the worlds oceans. Today, few creatures in the world inspire as much fear as the Great White Shark, the closest nature has come to a pure killing machineif you exclude Megalodon, which was 10 times bigger. Before discussing shark evolution, though, its important to define what we mean by shark. Technically, sharks are a suborder of fish whose skeletons are made out of cartilage rather than bone; sharks are also distinguished by their streamlined, hydrodynamic shapes, sharp teeth, and sandpaper-like skin. Frustratingly for paleontologists, skeletons made of cartilage dont persist in the fossil record nearly as well as skeletons made of bonewhich is why so many prehistoric sharks are known primarily (if not exclusively) by their fossilized teeth. The First Sharks We dont have much in the way of direct evidence, except for a handful of fossilized scales, but the first sharks are believed to have evolved during the Ordovician period, about 420 million years ago (to put this into perspective, the first tetrapods didnt crawl up out of the sea until 400 million years ago). The most important genus that has left significant fossil evidence is the difficult-to-pronounce Cladoselache, numerous specimens of which have been found in the American midwest. As you might expect in such an early shark, Cladoselache was fairly small, and it had some odd, non-shark-like characteristicssuch as a paucity of scales (except for small areas around its mouth and eyes) and a complete lack of claspers, the sexual organ by which male sharks attach themselves (and transfer sperm to) the females. After Cladoselache, the most important prehistoric sharks of ancient times were Stethacanthus, Orthacanthus, and Xenacanthus. Stethacanthus measured only six feet from snout to tail but already boasted the full array  of shark features: scales, sharp teeth, a distinctive fin structure, and a sleek, hydrodynamic build. What set this genus apart were the bizarre, ironing-board-like structures atop the backs of males, which were probably somehow used during mating. The equally ancient Stethacanthus and Orthacanthus were both fresh-water sharks, distinguished by their small size, eel-like bodies, and odd spikes protruding from the tops of their heads (which may have delivered jabs of poison to bothersome predators). The Sharks of the Mesozoic Era Considering how common they were during the preceding geologic periods, sharks kept a relatively low profile during most of the Mesozoic Era,  because of intense competition from marine  reptiles like ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. By far the most successful genus was Hybodus, which was built for survival: this prehistoric shark had two types of teeth, sharp ones for eating fish and flat ones for grinding mollusks, as well as a sharp blade jutting out of its dorsal fin to keep other predators at bay. The cartilaginous skeleton of Hybodus was unusually tough and calcified, explaining this sharks persistence both in the fossil record and in the worlds oceans, which it prowled from the Triassic to the early Cretaceous periods. Prehistoric sharks really came into their own during the middle Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago. Both Cretoxyrhina (about 25 feet long) and Squalicorax (about 15 feet long) would be recognizable as true sharks by a modern observer; in fact, theres direct tooth-mark evidence that Squalicorax preyed on dinosaurs that blundered into its habitat. Perhaps the most surprising shark from the Cretaceous period is the recently discovered Ptychodus, a 30-foot-long monster whose numerous, flat teeth were adapted to grinding up tiny mollusks, rather than large fish or aquatic reptiles. After the Mesozoic After the dinosaurs (and their aquatic cousins) went extinct 65 million years ago, prehistoric sharks were free to complete their slow evolution into the remorseless killing machines we know today. Frustratingly, the fossil evidence for the sharks of the Miocene epoch (for example) consists almost exclusively of teeththousands and thousands of teeth, so many that you can buy yourself one on the open market for a fairly modest price. The Great White-sized Otodus, for example, is known almost exclusively by its teeth, from which paleontologists have reconstructed this fearsome, 30-foot-long shark. By far the most famous prehistoric shark of the Cenozoic Era  was Megalodon, adult specimens of which measured 70 feet from head to tail and weighed as much as 50 tons. Megalodon was a true apex predator of the worlds oceans, feasting on everything from whales, dolphins, and seals to giant fish and (presumably) equally giant squids; for a few million years, it may even have preyed on the equally ginormous whale Leviathan. No one knows why this monster went extinct about two million years ago; the most likely candidates include climate change and the resulting disappearance of its usual prey.