Education: Quantity, Quality, or Both?

Havell Markus

Dr. Allison Parker

ENG 102

17 June 2014

What do you think is more important quality or quantity?  The importance of quality or quantity is an old debate topic in our society.  There exists not one sole answer to this question, since it is entirely dependent on the relative situation.  So, in the case of education, is the quality or the number of people getting an education important?  You might say, well both are important.  The more people get quality education the better it is and I agree.  However, today our country, the United States of America, struggles with maximizing quality and quantity of education.  It is great that America has accepted and implemented the human right to education, since every child has an equal and free opportunity to attend primary and secondary schools.  Yet, even after granting such an opportunity they fail to provide quality education in many schools across the nation.  Therefore, even if a lot more children have an access to education, they are not receiving quality education.  Thus, I argue the human right to education should not only focus on quantity, but also quality of education promised. 

A balance demonstrating Quantity vs. Quality

            To begin my case, first I would like to show my readers the existence of the problem relating to the quality of education in America.  A recent article on CNN titled “Radical Steps for Struggling Schools” pointed out, “the Kansas City school board approved a plan to close 29 out of its 61 public schools” in order “to fight the poor quality of education there – quality so poor that the Superintendent says diplomas given to graduates 'aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on’” (Phillips).  29 out of 61 public school is almost half of the school being closed due to poor quality education.  Furthermore, the Superintendent’s statement hits the bull’s eye as he says the diplomas are not worth anything.  This shows even after attending high school for four long years, student’s time involved did not equate to anything.  To build on my argument, I will like my readers to watch the President Barack Obama’s presidential speeches (CLICK HERE TO BE REDIRECTED TO THE VIDEO) as it highlights the severe situation with the education quality in America.  He says, “We are being outpaced by other nations.  It is not that their kids are any smarter than ours; it is that they are being smarter about how to educate their children.  They are spending less time teaching things that do not matter and more time teaching things that do.  They are preparing their students not only for high school or college but for a career, we are not.  Our curriculum for eighth graders is two full years behind top performing countries. That is a prescription for economic decline… 4^th grade readers in Mississippi are scoring nearly 70 points lower than students in Wyoming and they are getting the same grade.  8 of our states are setting their standards so low that their students may end up on par with roughly the bottom 40% of the world.”  I am not promoting Obama and his views on how to fix education, since everyone shares a different opinion on that subject matter, but I am focusing on the facts he shares to highlight the poor quality of education in America and its consequence.  He carries his argument effectively to show American citizens that quality of education needs to be improved.  He successfully builds his ethos as a respected politician and influential figure running for future president.  He also perfectly builds the logos and pathos of his argument through showering his audience with sentimental and attention grabbing facts.  Thus, through these two reliable sources it is evident that education in America lacks quality, even though education is available to everyone. 

            Now you might be wondering even though the human right to education guarantees free primary education and makes higher education equally accessible to every child, it does not say anything about providing quality of education.  This dilemma is tackled through simple deductive reasoning.  In my previous post I mentioned education serves as an “enabling” right, which helps human beings fulfill their naturally entitled right to life, liberty, and happiness.  Therefore, it is intuitive that without quality education, the human educational right fails to meet its purpose as an “enabling” right.  If people do not receive quality education, they would not be about to gain the 21^st century skill set of problem solving, critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity required to secure and achieve their natural rights.  The human right to education does not only operate to educate the most amount of people, but it also seeks to grant them quality education.  Thus, the right should instead be called “the human right to quality education” and we need to pull together our collective actions to demand and ensure our government to fulfills their roles of providing quantity along with quality education.

The picture above highlights our government's fight and progress for quality education.

Work Cited:

Phillips, Kyra. "Radical Steps for Struggling Schools." CNN Newsroom RSS. CNN, 10 Mar. 2010. Web. 17 June 2014. <http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/10/radical-steps-for-struggling-schools/?iref=allsearch>.