The School System Needs an Overhaul

What is wrong with the United States’ school system? That’s simple. The government runs it. It’s not just the “No Child Left Behind Act” that is the problem - although it is a big one. It is difficult to understand the rationale behind lowering the international standards in order to say that the schools are doing a good job. How is dumbing down the curriculum a good job? It isn’t. It is robbing our children of the education they deserve and leaving them poorly prepared for the “real” world when they finally meet it. The real world is not going to coddle a person because he or she is not doing as good a job as another. In the real world that person gets left behind. It is a worthy goal that the government has to leave no child behind. However, making the teachers teach just the things that are on a certain test so that the school can look good in reports is not the same as not leaving a child behind - it’s leaving all the children behind.
A better system would be vouchers. Vouchers attach money to the child; therefore it would create competition between schools. Obviously parents only want what is best for their children so they would choose to send their kids to better schools. This would make the poorer schools try harder to better their curriculum and teaching staff. This is what will help American kids get ahead. So many students attend private schools or are home-schooled. Why? Because their parents are fed up with the public school system and what it doesn’t have to offer.
There is competition in every other aspect of one’s life. Competition is what gives us better cell phones, safer cars, and lower cable bills.
It is already proven to some degree that competition between schools works to produce better programs. High School football is very big in Texas. Schools clamor for the best coaches and work hard to be the best because that gets them more money for the athletic programs. The same principle applies to academia. Vouchers can only improve America’s public school system.

Dissecting "Where is My Money?"

According to a colleague’s blog there is need for Social Security reform. It is a well-written article. One can appreciate the use of statistics to support the article. It shows that some research was done and the article wasn’t hastily completed.
The only thing that might improve the article is if the author answered his own questions. How does the author think Congress should support future retirees? The author says “Congress needs to decide on how to deal with this problem.” Does he have any ideas or opinions on that point himself? He seems to be against raising taxes to fund Social Security, but does not present any other options.
Over all it is a good article. The reader would benefit by getting to know the author a little better through sharing his own ideas for solutions rather than just thought-provoking questions.
There was a grammar issue where the author used ‘then’ instead of ‘than’. Also ‘retirees’ was misspelled in the beginning but then corrected in the end of the article. It probably just needed to be proof-read one more time.