The Department of Education should support public schools, and provide a path to a 4-year college degree for every American, regardless of their age. The Education Department could also provide help to high school students to get into college, such as providing free SAT/ACT preparation software for all high school juniors. STEM programs should be expanded into the very beginning of a child's education - in kindergarten, and there should be local, regional, state, and national competitions in STEM fields for groups of students of all ages. Here are a few more things that Patrick R. McElhiney suggests should be done with regards to improving the education of students in the United States of America.
Bringing Back SEOG and Pell Grants for Graduate Students
Patrick R. McElhiney believes that the government should bring back the SEOG and Pell Grant programs for Graduate Students, like they existed historically. These programs really help to pay off in the long-term, as graduates with a professional degree make more than twice the amount that graduates with a Bachelor's degree make - which means more tax revenue. There should be incentives to go to school longer in America, like in Denmark where you can go to school as long as you want and the national government pays for it all. We live in a country where the rich are in power, and they are taking away programs that help to promote the middle class, and ultimately the rich relies largely on the success of the middle class, as the rich hire these graduates in their companies.
Lowering Student Loan Interest Rates
One way to decrease the costs associated with college, would be to lower the interest rates that are charged on student loans. For some time, the Federal Government subsidized a good amount of the student loans that a person would take out for their undergraduate degree, and Patrick supports doing this again. Patrick also supports lowering student loan interest rates for graduate and PhD students, as these students tend to borrow much more, and their interest payments overall are many times more over than what an undergrad student borrows during their lifetime.
Banning Alcohol and Tobacco Use at School
There should be punishment when students in junior high and high schools consume alcohol or tobacco, because it is illegal, and we must teach our young adults to follow the law early on in their lives. Vaping and other types of tobacco use have become an epidemic in high schools, and the products need to be restricted or banned entirely within proximity to places where teenagers hang out and go to school. Additionally, alcohol consumption for college students should be regulated by the schools, because it is contrary to the purpose of attending college to get drunk, and incidents such as hazing have continued to plague our nation.
Mandatory Class About Building and Maintaining Financial Credit
Patrick R. McElhiney believes that there should be a mandatory class that all high school seniors must take regarding the ability to build and maintain a healthy credit score. So many of our young children are entering into a world of debt which could ruin their lives for at least 14 years after making a serious mistake. High school graduates should be required to pass a course that teaches them about financial credit, and how to use it, and how not to use it - because everything in life weighs on the person's credit score, whether they are going to buy a new car, a home, or start a business. There is so much that high school graduates need to know about credit, and there should be no exception to any high school student graduating without taking and passing such a course - just like a Government or Sex Education class. The finance class should teach high school students about building up good credit in educational programs such as while pursuing a Bachelor's degree. These are a very important set of skills to build early-on.
Ensuring the Success of Minorities in Our Schools
Whether it be in grade schools, or all the way up to college, we need to do more to ensure that our minority populations are climbing the ladder. It needs to start when they are young, and continue all the way through college. Minorities such as women and African Americans are still discriminated against in college, and more needs to be done to educate and inform younger generations about racism and sexism, to ensure it doesn't happen in our colleges and public schools. If we don't provide an equal opportunity to all students, or a section of the demographic population is left out from education, we will fail as a nation to provide every opportunity to these individuals to achieve the American Dream.
Protecting the Disabled and LGBTQ
The stigma of being disabled is damaging the students among their peers, and we need to do more to reduce the stigma associated with disabilities. Disabled kids are being bullied in school, which is leading some of them to write suicide notes. Additionally, 1 in 50 students identifies as transgender. We need to support inclusiveness starting at a very young age, in preschool or kindergarten. We need to take a different approach to kids that have mental illnesses. We need to make sure they know that they are not alone, and that they have the support of adults when they are being bullied. The kids that do the bullying need to be held accountable, and that starts with ensuring that all cases of bullying are reported. We need to do more to ensure that there is no retaliation after bullying has been reported, because when Patrick was in school, the people that bullied him that got in trouble were not very happy about him telling the teacher. We need to look at the big picture with regards to bullying, and ensure that every student is protected.
Reducing the Costs of Attending College
We need to do more to reduce the costs associated with attending college, such as through providing more funding to technical, trade, and vocational schools in America. In Europe, high school includes what Junior High includes in America, so that by the time a student gets to high school, they are already working on topics that pertain to the career that they want to go into. European students also attend much longer school days, because they learn a lot more earlier on than U.S. students do. When European students are finished with high school, they don't have to take all of the general education classes that undergraduate degree students have to take in the United States. This reduces the overall costs of college in Europe, because students are already ready to study in their career subject.
High School Credits While Attending College
There should be more programs that offer high school class credits for people that are already prepared to attend college before graduating from high school. Similar to the 5-year Master's Degree that allows Undergraduate students to begin working on their Master's Degree early on by taking harder classes, so it takes less time to complete the Master's, this type of program would satisfy credits needed to graduate from High School while the student attends a 2-year or 4-year college. There is already a program similar to this in Rochester, New Hampshire - where students attending Rochester High School can get credits for high school classes while attending the Criminal Justice program at Great Bay Community College. This allows students to graduate from high school on time, while at the same time prepare to become a Police officer or one of any number of jobs available in the Criminal Justice field.
Adversity Score on the SAT Exam
Patrick R. McElhiney supports the concept of an adversity score on the SAT exam, and he thinks it should also apply to the ACT exam as well. This may not apply to entry to all colleges, as some are now using their own testing or vetting process to pick the right students, however the adversity score helps to give more of a chance to the disadvantaged high school students that live in poor communities, or live in areas of higher crime rates. This score should also take into consideration the proportionate requirements for each adverse student, such as how they would perform at their best based on their location of domicile. Patrick supports empowering all students, regardless of their background, but thinks that disadvantaged students, such as African Americans from poor neighborhoods, should be given a chance at some of the top universities in the country, especially when they are the top students in their area and just don't compare to privileged white students from rich neighborhoods. Students shouldn't be compared to all students in the nation - they should be evaluated based on their probability of success should they be given the chance to go to a top college.
Schools Safe from Violent Offenders
Our public schools should be required to install silent panic alarms in every classroom, so that if there is ever a situation where Police should be dispatched to the school, the silent alarm - like those that banks have, could be pressed to alert local Police to the situation. The system should also allow for a complete electronic lock-down of the school, where each of the classroom doors contain electronic locks that actually lock out students from being able to open the doors until Police have canvassed the area and ruled out any further danger to the students. Such systems could save hundreds if not thousands of lives from mass school shootings, despite how expensive it may be to install the systems. It would make schools impenetrable, where students can focus on learning rather than being in fear of the "what if?" a mad man comes through the door with an assault rifle.
Patrick R. McElhiney has written about school safety before, in an article for MCE123 Technology Development entitled "School Security Systems v1.0". The purpose was to design a system that would ensure the security of students in the event of an active shooter, or a bomb threat, or other types of threats posed by criminals towards our nation's schools. The system would prevent deaths and injuries from school shootings and other school security events. There should also be silent panic alarms in every classroom that go to the local Police department, to ensure that any safety concern is reported immediately to the authorities. There should be electronic locking doors that don't accept usual access credentials during a lockdown, so, for an example, student and teacher access codes are disabled during a lockdown, which requires law enforcement to unlock the system in the event of a shooting.
Fair Pay for Teachers
Patrick believes that teachers at public school should be paid fairly, which currently isn't the case. Teachers across the nation are having a hard time making ends meet, while they prepare our country's bright minds to be successful in college and in their career. Teachers in Texas make an average of $7,000 less than the national average. Teachers should be paid, not just based on the cost of living plus more for their efforts, but also based on their good performance. If there's a teacher that is doing extremely well, based on increasing the test scores of their students - that teacher should be rewarded financially for their accomplishments. Paid performance works well in the private industry, and it can work very well in public schools as well. Teachers are the lifeline of our nation's economy - their hard work is responsible for educating and training the next generation of skilled employees for our nation, and they should be paid appropriately to their success rate.
More Funding for Community Colleges
Patrick McElhiney first attended a community college, in order to save money while taking basic classes that could be completed at a 2-year college, and Patrick earned his A.S. in Business Management from a 2-year college before going on to work on his Bachelor's degree. There's nothing wrong with community colleges - just look at how successful Patrick has turned out. Another individual that attended a community college was Elizabeth Warren, who is running for the Democratic Nomination for the Presidential Elections of 2020. She wanted to be a teacher for her entire life, and she's done so much good as a politician in Washington, D.C. Community colleges are the places where people from poor backgrounds, and people that didn't do as well in high school can attend to get a start in their career. Patrick started his business while he was attending high school, but most of the initial work that made his business a successful one started when he was attending Merced Community College, and later Modesto Junior College, both located in the Central Valley of California. Even poor people, like Patrick and Elizabeth, can make it in this economy and make a living, as a business owner, as a politician, or as anything else they want to become.
Mentoring of High School Students
We need more programs in the private industry to mentor kids that are getting closer to graduating from high school about the careers that they would choose to take. An example of this is Legal Outreach in New York City, which is helping students prepare for careers in law firms. We need more career days and dress for success days in high school, and in junior high school. We need community leadership groups such as Kiwanis and Rotary to step up to the plate and take on the challenge of seeing that all high school students in their community are on track to be successful in life beyond high school. We deserve to prepare our children to be the next generation to take over the country and be prepared to do the work in their respective careers from Day 1.
Adult Education
Adult illiteracy rates have increased by 200%, and budget cuts by the Trump Administration are threatening Adult Education in America. Maine is one of the few states where the Governor has pledged to increase funding to Adult education. Federal dollars for Adult Education programs have not kept up with inflation, and in 2020, the Trump Administration has called for a 25% decrease to Adult education programs. Some schools serve immigrants, which may be why Trump is cutting the funding, also negatively affecting Americans that need the services that aren't migrants.
A lot of people hide the fact that they can't read, because they are ashamed. It's isolating to be illiterate, because you don't want your secret to be found out. If you don't understand what people are saying, you can't talk to them. You don't know vocabulary, and you don't know how to use the words. Adult education is a life saver. Before being able to read and write, one student said she was like an ostrich, and now, she's like a blooming flower that can't stop smiling.
The need for adult education is around the nation - from high school completion, to resume writing, to reading. People can't find jobs if they can't read. They're only able to serve a fraction of the need of the functions of a job. Students want to feel more integrated into society. They want to get involved in the community. Giving people a second chance helps the economy. People are less likely to volunteer without adult literacy. They can't read road signs, can't fill out forms. Even a custodian in a school needs to be able to read and write - because you can't mix certain chemicals together. Why would President Trump want to reduce this service that has a good return on investment for America?
