The education policy in the United States is encountering with several issues such as poor student abilities, inappropriate and weak curriculum and little parent involvement in the studies of children. Another important and major issues based on the fact that it is really difficult for the parents to select the colleges for their children which are suitable and affordable for them. The required elements include the suitable fees structure, education level, courses availability, campuses appearances and many more.
Most importantly parents, guardians, or the students want the academic quality and they are not able to accept faults in the academic quality of the educational institution. Now the policy makers of the country are considering dealing with the aspect of academic quality. Two important factors are notable in this regard. All states of the country are following their own pattern of education and providing different facilities to the students in the perspective of academic quality (Dye, 2017). In recent years, quality of education in the states is becoming diverse with time (“ESEA Reauthorization: A Blueprint for Reform | U.S. Department of Education”, 2010).
The federal level started initiative to spread Common Core Standards that should be established in a certain way which could ensure the same standard of academic quality all over the 50 states. But this initiative was not implemented yet due to the reasons including that the program will not be a practical one and due to different diversified cultures of the different states they are not able to follow a same standard at the national level (“ESEA Reauthorization: A Blueprint for Reform | U.S. Department of Education”, 2010).
It is truly a sensitive issue and not one standard of academic quality could be implemented on the national level. The initiative that is challenging and has worth implementing includes the cost of higher education. The cost for higher education is becoming expensive with time in the country and should need a proper policy measure that could restrict the expensive strategies of the colleges.
Rationale for the chosen policy
In the United States College education comes with a price tag on it. The price of college education increased more than four times faster than the inflation rate since the year of 1978 (“Making college cost less”, 2014). At the time of elections, Henry Clinton was who was focusing on this policy measure that she wanted to work on reducing the costly college education in the country (“Politicians Suggest Ways to Reduce College Tuition”, 2016).
The plan named as New College Compact. It was based on several factors that it will provide grants to all the states and given by the federal government system. These grants will increase the financial aid to the deserving talented students and support them to pay for their costs and tuition. The plan was not only suitable but also effective one that it included the factor that the community colleges will be tuition free. This could lead to positive outcomes and if this policy is implemented in the country it will reduce the higher cost for education. The policy also included that the interests rates on the student loans will be decreased. The cost of this policy was estimated and it was around $350 billion over the 10 years.
Relevancy and its effect on the chosen industry
The New College Compact initiative of policy is no doubt effective and valuable in the sense that it will reduce the higher cost of education that is among the most serious issues of the country. The cost of higher education will reduced and it will impact positively to the ones who are not able to afford the college education due to its expensive tuition fees. It will reduce the burden of parents who are not able to provide quality education to their children and have to suffer from the burden of loans. It will overall benefit the country’s higher education system.
Deviation from the current policy that would improve its effectiveness
Current policies are not supporting the factors that lead to reduce the rates of college education tuition fees. The states are able to make changes but are not considering the changes due to different issues such as the colleges are presenting reasons behind their expensive college fee structure. If the states could implement this policy named New College Compact, then it will impact positively to the states college education level and will improve its effectiveness.
If your recommended changes are implemented, would there be ways to measure the policy improvements?
If the policy of New College Compact will implemented then it will lead to the decrease in the rate of college expensive education. There will be several measures to judge and analyze the improvements such as research measures. The research initiatives will analyze the differences that could occur positively in the college education system. Moreover, the state reports that could analyze the differences or changes in the education level will be recorded to analyze and evaluate the change in the education system.
Examine what level of oversight national government should provide to the chosen policy
The selected policy could be implemented and will lead to the positive outcomes as it will reduce the cost for higher education especially in the colleges. The national government should implement this policy, but it is predictable that it will not implement because it was presented by an opponent participant of elections against the present United States President Donald Trump. The chosen policy will be implemented if the current President could consider this factor more importantly and try to apply effective measures that could reduce the problems of education level in the country.
References
Dye, T. (2017). Understanding public policy (15th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
ESEA Reauthorization: A Blueprint for Reform | U.S. Department of Education. (2010). Www2.ed.gov. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from https://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/index.html
Politicians Suggest Ways to Reduce College Tuition. (2016). VOA. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/politicians-suggest-ways-to-reduce-tuition/3175263.html
Making college cost less. (2014). The Economist. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21600120-many-american-universities-offer-lousy-value-money-government-can-help-change
