
PARSA MOTAHAR
TREASURER
PARSA MOTAHAR
TREASURER
Parsa Motahar is a sophomore at the UH Honors College. He is majoring in Nutrition with a minor in Chemistry. He plans to attend graduate school after obtaining his bachelor's degree. He enjoys being a Cougar Tutor because he believes it enhances students’ attitudes towards school. Outside of the organization, he enjoys skating, reading, and coding.
PARSA MOTAHAR
TREASURER
PARSA MOTAHAR
TREASURER
PARSA MOTAHAR
TREASURER
Parsa Motahar is a sophomore at the UH Honors College. He is majoring in Nutrition with a minor in Chemistry. He plans to attend graduate school after obtaining his bachelor's degree. He enjoys being a Cougar Tutor because he believes it enhances students’ attitudes towards school. Outside of the organization, he enjoys skating, reading, and coding.
PARSA MOTAHAR
TREASURER
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PROJECTS
A New Structure: With Legal Roadmap
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by Vishaal Kuruvanka
June 12th, 2022
“The strength of a nation necessarily depends upon the progress of civilization, which in turn is contingent upon the growth of intellectual knowledge of its people. With this belief, many pioneers have devoted their lives to the promotion of education in all countries. Far-reaching effects in the enhancement of civilization are attained invariably although the results may not be apparent until hundreds of years have elapsed.” - Dr. J. Heng Liu Translation of Harvard Bixi
“For example, the existence of numerous and small fiscally independent school districts was an important virtue of the past and it enabled educational progress, but today small fiscally independent districts, with their widely divergent levels of taxable land and real estate, are often seen as a source of inequity in school resources and a hindrance to educational advances for children from low-income communities.” - Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, The Race between Education and Technology (2009)
The following are policy proposals and by no means are the singular answers to reforming education. Because they are proposals, these structures do not currently exist but rather try to theoretically solve the problem of low educational standards and following outcomes.
As our country continues to grow along with the advent of computers and the internet, it is necessary to add a political framework that our education system sits upon. For too long, the extreme decentralized nature of our system has allowed for certain areas to excel while leaving a majority of students (not living in high net worth jurisdictions) bereft of a combination of high quality teachers, resources and opportunities. Although the United States may be struggling, there are other countries around the world that understand the efficient education of their population will lead to higher economic output and standards of living. Observing these countries along with studying effective management systems, we see that there is a national board present that sets specific standards and overarching tones. This is to make sure that there are few discrepancies in what students are striving to master in schools within the same borders and to clearly state the purpose of what we are educating our students for. Another key aspect for effective schooling, is setting up structures that allow us to monitor the progress of our students’ education. This is routinely done through testing, which in many cases is necessary, but as we enter an era of free flowing information, this too must be changed to value creativity and building through project based learning. This will be spoken more on in the design of education essay but the point here is that a system needs to be set in place to better keep vigil over our schools, quickly solve problems when they arise and support struggling schools. Education serves as the true passport out of poverty and we are severely handicapping our country by not having simple yet effective structures that push our students to grow to their utmost abilities.
In the case of our education system local governance is necessary (for management and solving area specific problems) but to ensure the uniformity of the education received by our students throughout the nation (example given in scenario B), there must be a set of subjects and principles agreed upon by leaders (teachers, scientists, artists, technologists and entrepreneurs) from across the country to prudently shore up our workforce for the coming century. There are far too many schools that struggle to adequately give a robust education, much less expose students to the different avenues of advancement and employment available to them.
While some may argue that education (refinement of the mind) is not a natural right and should not be a function of national government, we all benefit if our fellow citizens are better educated and to a larger effect, our country. This is not only a question of national empowerment but of the advancement of our countrymen and women. We face grave threats from foreign adversaries that do not doubt the power of education and have strenuously worked to make sure the benefit of education is pushed to all peoples within their nation. Given that we have had a considerable lead, we must now look to new paths to mold our youth or ultimately cede our role as the leader of the free world. To this effect, a possible structure that may alleviate some of the problems we currently face is set below.
I believe that a new nationally empowered system that effectively governs and observes schooling would efficiently allow for the organic growth of our coming generations' minds. To model this new system, there is a framework that already exists within the United States. The federal reserve system, with 12 governors to manage specific federal reserve banks and watch and gather data on their regions financial stability, would serve best in setting up a new education model.
Educational Board of Chancellors
In the case for education, there could be 12 chancellors (non-partisan), appointed by the President, who would ultimately supervise and monitor schools known as the Educational Board of Chancellors. These chancellors will be responsible for collecting data on performance of schools (testing included), setting as a group a loose curriculum to be followed for the whole of the nation, and supporting schools within their regions. As explained above there needs to be a formation of federal unified education policy to lead and set loose standards on curriculum (and testing), aid in identifying and rewarding good schooling, and ultimately help struggling schools with localized approaches. This board’s purpose is to make sure a uniform approach is taken with regards to standards, testing, resources and observation.The chancellors would be selected from the region that they are being tasked to supervise so that they are already familiar with the region's needs. The chancellors will serve in a rotational capacity, with the chair seat rotationally being switched. The head of this group will routinely meet with the President of The United States and the House of Representatives to routinely give updates. The idea is for this council to serve as the federal layer of the education system with the local systems still in place.
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(this picture is from Wikipedia and shows the different regions of the federal reserve)
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The power to create this system is vested in the United States Congress and will have to be passed into law to put this system into place. Following the similar nature of the federal reserve’s independence within the government structure would be ideal as this would shield the system from political infighting that arises between parties, as usually does, through the course of time. The Educational Board of Chancellors will be appointed by the President that is confirmed by the Senate and serve in terms of six (or eight) years. The Chair and Vice Chair is also appointed by the president and reports to the House and the President in sufficient intervals. This board will serve to oversee public schooling in their designated areas and can also aid in delegating funding given by the Department of Education.
With a board of chancellors from all parts of the nation, the small but tight knit group will represent the needs of their regions and set unified standards across the board for all aspects of our education system. The president should select chancellors that have experience governing school boards or districts allowing for obvious exceptions. It would also be advisable to have a different council that has entrepreneurs, scientists and academics to submit a report on subjects/skills that they believe would be useful in the coming century.
Through the reformation of the structure, these new chancellors will build new standards encompassing the skills necessary to thrive in the 21st century. Before setting this new curriculum, it would be prudent to have congress commission a study on the well functioning education systems throughout the world and incorporate successful measures that would aid in the development of our students. For example, implementing Singapore’s method of a narrow but deep style of teaching seemingly benefits students. Through this study, it becomes clear that a uniform testing system should also be erected to simplify the current mode of testing, both for students and teachers.
This new structure will cause some concern around what the constitution says about the federal government’s role in the education system. The tenth amendment to the constitution states that any implied powers not stated in the constitution are given to the states and because education is not explicitly stated in the constitution, that responsibility should fall to the states. While the states will still control the governance of local schools and local curriculum within the aforementioned system, it is essential to set federal standards of education to ensure the uniformity of educational standards across the country. It has also been seen clearly that while some states succeed greatly, too many states are performing below par.
To create a new structure, another portion in the constitution may be looked upon for guidance. Within the constitution, specifically Article 1 section 8, powers are given to congress to “provide for the common defense and the general welfare” of the American public. To this end does education not count among the highest of american needs both for shoring up our economic and military defenses and improving the general welfare for our people? The necessary and proper clause (otherwise known as the elastic clause):
“The Congress shall have Power... To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
allows for the government to make legislative structures for solving problems that arise through the course of time. It was this interpretation that allowed for the first central bank to be invented although it did not specifically state that the government was able to create a central bank. This logic affords the opportunity to build upon an education system that will have incalculable network effects on the nature of commerce being done across the US. As individuals gain a better education, they become more efficient economic actors leading to higher economic activity. With this sense, education is the fuel for the economic engine. And as it consumes more fuel, the engine evolves becoming more and more efficient. So why would we not aid in creating more fuel to help accelerate this evolution?
The education system, specifically schools, must be carefully observed, quickly attended to when problems arise, and efficiently built to succeed. Schooling is an area where we should make sure that every child has the opportunity for a high quality education regardless of where they live. The threat against our country is too large in this day and age to not cultivate the next set of leaders for our coming century. The next essay will dwell on possible means of design for education in the twenty-first century.