Conclusions and Controversies about the Effectiveness of School Resources

oth the U.S. public and U.S. policymakers pursue a love-hate relationship with U.S. schools. While a majority of parents believe that their children’s schools are doing well, a majority also believe that the system as a whole needs help. Complicating this view is a variety of concerns about specific aspects of U.S. schools—they are too expensive, too rigid, too elitist, and too unequal. During the past year, President Clinton has directed considerable government attention to U.S. education. This attention follows the lead of Presidents Bush and Reagan, who also focused on education policy, although the oversight of such policy is not the primary role of the federal government. President Bush, for example, in 1989 convened a historic gathering of the governors of all of the states to focus exclusively on issues of education. The governors set a series of lofty goals for the year 2000, including the goal that U.S. students should be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement. Unfortunately, we are now close to the year 2000, but we are not close to meeting the set goals. This paper analyzes the current state of the education system in the United States. In the course of the paper, I will try to point out where controversy exists, particularly in academic discussions.