"THE COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PRESENT STATE OF THE AMERICA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS"

THE CURRENT STATISTICAL DATA AND THE STATE OF THE AMERICA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The kindergarten to the 12th grade education is mandatory for every American child up to the age of eighteen in most of the 50 states and territories of the United States. This is the constitutional rights of every child, and funding for their education comes from the three levels of our government, federal, state and the local. Our public schools are run by more than 14,000 independent public school systems or school districts with their organizational structures varying from one state to another.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the U.S. has more than 14,000 public school districts and spends more than $500 billion on public elementary and secondary education each year (combined spending of federal, state, and local governments). The United States Constitution leaves the 50 state governments with the primarily responsible for the education of every American child in their states, while the federal government assists them with the funding. The American taxpayers are primarily responsible for the source of funding of our public schools through their taxes.

American public educational systems educate about 80 million students for 180 days in a school year with English Language used as the official language of instruction at all levels and in all curriculum areas. The United States Department of Labor estimated that American Public Schools have close to 4 million educators who are primarily responsible for the academic and social developments of these students during their formative years. Most of these teachers are unionized employees, must be licensed to teach or certified in their subject areas which require a minimum of a bachelor's degree, and the completion of an approved teacher education program and certification tests.

All educational policies that govern the daily running of the tens of thousands of our public school systems in America are made by the politicians and the educational policy markers in charge of our public education at the three levels of our government, federal, state and the local. These policies govern the entire process of teaching and learning, they are mandatory and must be followed and implemented fully by all the public schools that receive federal funding.

America remains the current leader and the richest nation in the world as well as the only remaining superpower in the 21st century. Our public school systems are in serious crises today, many high school students do not graduate in time, many that graduated lack the basic skills in mathematics, reading and writing, thereby making them unprepared either for careers or higher education. Achievement gap keeps widening between the white students and the minority students.

According to the a recent report from the Alliance For Excellent Education, 1.2 million students fail to graduate from our high schools, and more than half of these dropouts are from minority groups. 2,000 of our nation's high schools are responsible for the production of  these dropouts. Also, 80% of those high schools with these dropouts are found in the 15 states out of our 50 states and territories. Majority of these failing high schools are located in the big cities of the northern and western parts of America and in the southern states.

As educational researcher Harold Stevenson notes, although "the U.S. is among the countries expending the highest proportion of their gross national product on education, our elementary school and secondary school students never place above the median in comparative studies of academic achievement." According to the National Research Council, average students in other industrialized countries are as proficient in mathematics as America's best students.

THE "UTOPIAN EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY" OF OUR POLITICIANS AND EDUCATIONAL POLICY MAKERS
Two schools of thought remain the key driving forces behind our national public educational policies for the American K-12 school systems. The first philosophy is based on the utopian belief that "every child can learn and be academically successful in life no matter the challenges that surround the situation". The second utopian belief is that "educators or teachers are miracle workers, with answers to all academic issues and should be able to turn every academic failure and challenges in every child that they educate into a big success story". In all truth and honesty, how realistic are these goals?

THE CURRENT NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY OF "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND"
This above named national educational policy known as the (NCLB) is built on the above named utopian educational policies of our politicians and the educational policy makers. A deep look at this educational act reveals its main components in detail. Firstly, all students are expected to be proficient in reading and mathematics at their appropriate grade and age levels. Secondly, every student should graduate from high school at record time and be fully prepared and ready for careers or higher education. Thirdly, every educator in every classroom would be subject specialists, certified and highly qualified in their areas of certification. Fourtly, schools will be made accountable through the Annual Yearly Progress report (AYP). The then Alabama State Superintendent Joe Morton on Wednesday, August 11, 2010, said these words about the proposed NCLB Act, "That can't happen,"  and "You have too many variables and you have too many scenarios, and everybody knows that would never happen."

THE "BLAME CULTURE, SCAPEGOATING AND NAME-CALLING" IN AN ATTEMPT TO SOLVE THESE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL CRISES
Who is directly responsible for our educational crises in the American public schools? Who should be held responsible as the culprit? What is the true situation on the ground? What can be done to solve these crises? What is the way forward? Where do we go from here? The main culprits that are held responsible today for our failing schools are the educators and the powerful teachers' trade unions. The politicians, public opinion and news media in the recent years have all focused their energy and attention on the "educators and the teachers' unions" by castigating them in the bad light to the members of the public.

THE LONGTERM ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THESE FAILING SCHOOLS ON THE AMERICAN NATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY
For America to remain great and competative with the remaining industrialized nations in the 21st century, these educational anomalies must be timely addressed and corrected adequately. Majority of these high school dropouts do not go back to finish their high school diploma through the alternative avenues provided by the state governments, such as the GED Program. These dropouts are likely to live below the poverty line throughout their life, may have to fully depend of the government welfare system for life that is funded by the taxpayers, or may likely end up in the prison systems periodically or for a lifetime.

According to the "Cities in Crisis" report funded in part by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the high school dropouts account for 13 percent of the adult population, but earn less than six percent of all dollars earned in the U.S. In the 50 largest cities, the median income for high school dropouts is $14,000 – significantly lower than the median income of $24,000 for high school graduates and $48,000 for college graduates. Nationally, high school dropouts were also the only group of workers who saw income levels decline over the last 30 years.

THE COLLECTIVE ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES OF ALL THE STAKEHOLDERS
Five principal stakeholders are directly and collectively responsible for the present state of our educational systems. The all play one major role or the other on the final outcomes that we see in our schools across the nation. The key players in our educational systems are:
(i) The politicians and the educational policy makers at the federal, state and local levels who make all the educational policies that are used to run our public school systems all over America.
(ii) The school administrators and the educators who are primarily responsible for the entire process of teaching and learning in our schools.
(iii) The powerful and the influencial teachers' unions that negotiate the bargaining agreements between the teachers and the board members for each school district.
(iv) The biological parents, legal guardians, foster and adopted parents of these students who are directly responsible for their living expenses and their homelife situations.
(v) The students, themselves who are the primary learners with a major role and a personal responsibility towards their own learning.

A REALISTIC NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN AMERICA IN THE 21ST CENTURY
A realistic approach that will work effectively, be result-oriented in nature, and adequately addressed all these anomalies in our educational systems can only come from all the stakeholders, when they all put their hands together on the plow, work together on the same problems, and stop putting the blame on some stakeholders and exempt the rest from these problems. We need to put away this culture of "name-calling" and "scapegoating" and focus on the enormous realities of our national educational crises. These will be done or can be achieved when every stakeholder play their primary roles and work together for the same common goal of educatiing all American students and prepare them for the challenges of the 21st century America in particular, and the world in general.