Governing States and Localities (Essay Sample)

Education in the State Of Michigan
And A Comparison with State Of Florida
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Michigan is one of the fifty states comprising the United States. It boasts of being the ninth populous with its capital being Lansing. Detroit is the largest city in the state attracting a good proportion of social-economic and political activities of the state (Wayne State University, 1982). This paper seeks to explore the condition of education in Michigan comparing it with state of Florida.
The education system comprises of public schools, private schools, and home-schooling usually under certain legal provisions. The public schools provide education to over a million students while the private schools attract over 100,000 students often from affluent families (Smith & Greenblatt, 2013). In addition, home-schooling draws an unknown number of pupils. Michigan also has a number of public varsities and private colleges all distributed throughout the state.
All students must attend school in the state of Michigan but with slight variations in the age for joining school among its various districts. Some schools will allow students to leave school at the age of 14-17 with permission from the parents while others restrict students from leaving until they attain 18 years. Public education which happens to be highly subsidized or free is from kindergarten through to grade twelve. As such, K-12 which is a short form coined whereby K stands for kindergarten and 12 for grade twelve.
The education system in Michigan faces a number of issues leaving considerable room for improvement. The key challenge lies in identifying the pertinent problems and the having persons in place who are willing to walk the talk. Therefore, it calls for consolidated effort from students, teachers, parents and lawmakers.
First, classroom size is an issue facing the education system in the state. In the midst of budget cuts, most schools are left with no option but to lift the classroom size. When there is a financial strain the class number is often compromised. That is, with no enough money to build classrooms to cater for the ever increasing number of students in public schools, the administration compromises on the number of students in one class.
However, most of the teachers admit that they cannot efficiently deliver to every student in a class exceeding 30 students. A study carried throughout schools in the state concluded that classrooms comprising of 15-17 presented both short term and long term benefits both to pupils and teachers (Smith & Greenblatt, 2013). In addition, those students from poor families and male students benefited more from a smaller classroom than their counterparts in larger classes.
Second is poverty, a pertinent issue facing education especially in the public schools. Poverty defined as a family of four or more living on or below $23,000 annually (Smith & Greenblatt, 2013). Students from low-income families comprise a majority of pupils in public schools due to the highly subsidized fees and at times no fees at all.
Student affected by poverty also have the highest dropout levels. Students deprived of sleep and food are rarely likely to perform in school. Despite this fact being known to the policy makers little is done to revert the situation considering scarcity of resources.
Third is family matters which plays a vital role in tutors’ effort to teach students. Occurrences at home tend to affect student’s willingness to learn. Domestic violence, divorce and child abuse are problems that students bring to school on a daily basis (Polly & Persichitte, 2012).
Another issue is technology whereby due to insufficient money allocated to schools they often lack the equipment to meet demand of the 21st century (Polly & Persichitte, 2012). Learners are technologically ahead of the teachers placing the latter in a comprised situation. Therefore, with the lack of devices such as computers and tablets in classrooms it becomes difficult to maintain student’s interest in the class and teach them new concepts.
Another issue that is detrimental to the education system is student response. Teachers in public schools mention absenteeism, misconduct and disrespect for teachers as some of the drawbacks of learning. However, these vices are mostly observed in secondary schools unlike primary schools.
Lastly is the issue of funding whereby as a result of most states being cash-strapped less is allocated to schools. This results in a shortage in the number of teachers, resources and decreased services to students. Consequently, insufficient funds have seen a drop in student performance over the years.
A Comparison of the State Of Michigan and State Of Florida
Michigan lags behind in terms of education standards compared to Florida. Lifting the bar about teaching and learning is one of the steps towards schools posting better results. High standards are the base for every education strategy in local schools all over the state (Hoy & Miskel, 2006).
The state of Florida better educates and trains its teachers giving it a comparative advantage against the state of Michigan about education. Schools with well-trained teachers gain more academically in a year thus struggling students catch up with their counterparts.
The teacher salaries of Michigan are way ahead of those of Florida. Michigan's performance in Mathematics and English disciplines lags behind features at around 38th when compared to the other states (Hoy & Miskel, 2006). Clearly, there is a mismatch between Michigan’s spending on teachers and their contribution to students.
Educational officers should assign school leaders to school who have maintained a record of high performance in their previous schools as principals. Consequently, such principals can choose effective teachers and also design and implement result-oriented learning programs.
Another difference is that Florida classes are better equipped technologically compared to Michigan. The classrooms should have blend instruction from the tutors with cons...