American schools are failing to prepare students for the industrialized and international world. Obama recognizes the issue and former president Bush attempted to overhaul the education system with his unpopular “No Child Left Behind Act” (NCLB).

There are many proposals to fix the system, including voucher schools, more money and standardized testing, such as NCLB. None of these solutions seem to fix the problem of uneducated students. The solution is to disintegrate or restructure the teacher’s union so schools can remove unqualified teachers.

In voucher schools, the government gives a check for each student in an area to attend a school of choice. Vouchers create competition, where like corporations, schools improve under customer demand.

The voucher system, despite popular support from politicians and parents, showed no substantial improvement between voucher students and public educated students according to a Washington D.C. study. Unlike the corporate world, it seems competitiveness between voucher schools do not improve students’ quality of work. (American School Board Journal).

Money also won’t fix the problem. In the past 20 years America has nearly doubled its investment in the youth, factoring inflation, yet test scores are flat. If money was the problem, the education system would already be fixed (Heritage Foundation).

Standardized testing encourages teaching to a specific subjective test rather than teaching the core subjects of reading, writing and mathematics.

The problem lies in the bureaucracy, administration and especially the union.

Those from private high schools   claim that a teacher who under-performs simply does not work the next year.

However, it is not as easy to pardon these types of teachers in the public education system because of the union. There are extreme examples in the New York Public School District, where it took about six years to fire a teacher who had sent suspicious sexual e-mails to a high school student (ABCnews.com).

Only once the union is gone, or reformedcan students can come first rather than the teacher’s invincible job security.

There are no other jobs in America that pay for mediocrity. People are laid off if they do not meet standards.   Education jobs pay the same amount if teachers perform or are negligent.

Another problem afflicting America’s schools is the politicizing of content by the government. Everything from graduation requirements to English as a second language courses to talented and gifted programs try to distinguish students into different groups.

This comes from the union, since government tries to establish guidelines for teaching, but the teachers lack input on the content taught.

There is no need to divide students. It promotes conformity within the groups and might hinder student’s education. Not that I am against any of these programs, since some programs such as the Learning Resource Centers (LRC) have worked wonders. How do these programs benefit the average student?

They simply do not. The average student is lost in the system of unqualified teachers. In letting this happen, we fail to recognize the purpose of schools, to educate all students fairly. Schools now seem more concerned with looking better on paper than ever, and students suffer as a result.

Schools need to remember to teach life skills, not how to pass a subjective standardized test or highlight a few special programs to parents that alienate most of the students.

In order to fix America’s education of its future citizens, parents, students and government need to remember who comes first: the students. We, as a nation, need to push for the recognition of under-performing teachers. The way to accomplish that is through the destruction or reorganization of the union.