David Jhoon Kim is the former CEO and co-founder of C2 Education Centers which he founded in his college dorm room along with Jim Narangajavana. Currently, he is the publisher of Teen Ink.
There is no better place to invest in our country’s future than education; yet, somehow we consistently fail to target education with our substantial resources.
During the pandemic, that failure to properly invest in our education system is leading to major detrimental effects: shortages of teachers, children missing out on key development opportunities, college students struggling to have basic needs met, and more. Our current officials are obviously not prioritizing key pillars to empower our communities – this includes education. We must prioritize our schools, as the compounding benefits they provide from promoting public health to combating inequality will exceed our wildest dreams.
The quality of education ties directly to the quality of the teachers, and the quality of teachers ties directly to their quality of life. If we want our teachers to perform well, we need to create a system that allows it. Teachers have one of the most stressful professions, on par with nurses and doctors. A fifth of our nation’s teachers works second jobs to make a living, while they correct homework and build lesson plans for over twenty students per class. The average teacher’s salary has decreased since 1999, and over 70% of our teachers are women, addressing our teachers’ pay goes beyond serving their well-being and enhancing education – it is a crucial element of eliminating the gender wage gap.
While providing our teachers with the backing they deserve, we need to make sure as many people have access to education as possible, starting in early childhood. This is not a pipe dream, nor does it come from an unreasonable place: the economic benefit of Universal Pre-K is approximated at $83 billion. Universal Pre-K both increases parental labor force participation, and creates an offsetting decrease in the use of public assistance. Each $1 invested in Universal Pre-K is estimated to create $2.60 more.
Our K-12 and Post-secondary education systems also need massive reconstructions. Schools are held back by restrictive standardized testing requirements that constrain both students and teachers; the only guarantee we get from college is debt, yet many jobs require that applicants have degrees even when the job doesn’t truly need it. By reshaping for free public college education – much like the G.I. Bill did for over 7 million veterans after World War II – we can foster an inclusive middle class and create socioeconomic benefits that far outweigh the cost.
Finally, our students deserve the highest levels of safety, tolerance, and well-being, regardless of where they live. This means re-shifting school discipline to a restorative justice method, which has led to sizable reductions in violent disorderly conduct (up to 65%), and teaching “soft” skills such as empathy and conflict resolution so students are equipped with multiple forms of intelligence upon graduation. Similar approaches have been successful internationally, and are worth integrating here, even if in a pilot approach.