What's the Problem With US High Schools?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @10:45AM from the fixing-the-american-educational-system dept.

GrumpySimon asks: "ABC News is reporting that High School kids are dropping out of high school in 'epidemic proportions', with an estimated 2,500 kids quitting daily. What's wrong with our school system that so many kids prefer working 40 hours a week instead? How can this be fixed?" It seems to be an America truism that "things get better after High School," and it wouldn't be surprising if most of you readers feel the same way. However, why does it have to be this way? What's the big problem with American High Schools where more and more children are feeling that it's better to risk the "real world" than to continue on with their education? Of course, another question that should be asked is: Is High School really the problem, or is it America's Educational system as a whole?

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Re:This is disingenuous Media spin by newt0311 · 2006-11-21 15:49 · Score: 1, Redundant

I am sorry. my statistics were outdated. here are the new ones:
Total people employed in the public ed. industry (Source: US national census bureau):
National Gov level:10,746
State and Local (ie. counties etc.) level:
Elem & Sec Instructional: 4,544,910
Elem & Secondary - Other: 1,994,693
Higher Ed Instructional: 633,531
Higher Ed - Other: 1,231,616
Other Education: 90,032
Total: 8,505,528
In comparison, total number of teachers: 3,250,600
So, the total percentage of employes in the US ed. system who are not teachers would be (8,505,528 - 3,250,600) / 8,505,528 = 61.78 %.
I apologize for not providing appropriate data with a hard to believe claim but the fact still stands that the US public education system has more administrators than teachers.