Changes I'd like to see in the US gov & education system

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For the sake of discussion, here's a few things I would like to see happen in the US.


1. Raise minimum military enlistment age to 24
2. Raise minimum age to vote to 24
3. Creation of new Federal Agency: The Civil Service.

(I know civil service already exists but not as an agency itself).

Civil Service would be a civilian equivalent of the military in the sense that a person that 'enlists' in this service does so in similar terms to the military: A set term to serve and while serving the person is paid for by the federal gov. and assigned to serve where he/she is needed. Upon completion of the term of Service the person receives benefits for the rest of their life that are similar (but not the same) as the military.

Civil Service Minimum enlistment age: 16 (local service), 18 (nationwide service), 21 (worldwide service).

Term of Service: Local = 2 years. Nationwide=4 years. Worldwide=2 years.

The Civil Service would assign people into community service & improvement jobs where the person can gain valuable experience and training/education.

-16yr old could be assigned to perform community service in his local county for two weekends per month during school days plus 1 month of summer vacation.

Benefits gained upon completion: Guaranteed entry into State funded universities & Colleges, Priority when applying for federal and state jobs and full price of textbooks for 4 years of university covered by the gov.

-Civil Service for 18yr olds is different. It is focused towards education and the application of what is being learned in university as part of their service. Nationwide service would have 'contracts' the person can sign with the service that would be beneficial for the person and the nation.

Non-contract people would serve the local community where they are attending university for one semester during the 4 year period. Their service would not be the same the 16 yr olds have..i'm talking things like becoming temp. staff for local police, being able to be called upon when a search for a missing kid is underway, disaster relief efforts.. in short, temporary footwork that helps the gov. services better service the community.

Contracts:
For example a person wanting to be a dentist or a medical doctor could sign a contract that the Service would pay half of his tuition and full cost of textbooks and in return the person, once graduated, serves as a dentist/doctor for 8 years at any nationwide location the Service requires his expertise (under gov. pay rate cap).

This would create a rather large pool of people ...in this case doctors or dentists... that would be serving the community at an inexpensive rate for a set number of years... and all the while these new doctors get guaranteed jobs upon graduation plus lots of work experience that they will need to secure a job after their contract term is over.

Benefits gained upon completion (if no contract): Masters degree assistance (case by case..could be some scholarship or priority over others to be accepted, etc), federal health insurance (vision/dental/medical/mental), home loan guarantee (similar to military), lowest pay grade pension.

If contract: All the above plus better pay grade pension, priority when applying to federal and state jobs and Masters/PhD assistance.

-Worldwide service is literally the Peace Corps (which would be absorbed into this agency).

Benefits upon completion: Educational assistance and free access to military flights (with prior civil service approval) and/or at-cost air travel pricing (with prior civil service approval).

Of all the above, only the federal health insurance (Nationwide service) can extend to immediate family members (wife/husband, children). Federal health insurance would cover all basic health checkups, minor surgeries and cost of most bloodwork/xray, minor rehabilitation, etc. People still need to get private insurance for major things like MRI, major rehabilitation therapy, major surgeries (aka brain surgery type stuff) and the likes.


4. Changes to Educational system:

- Upon entering high school the student should be given two 'path' choices: Science path and Humanities path.

Science Path - The courses taken during high school will be focused more towards mathematics, chemistry, biology and other sciences.

Humanities Path - The classes taken during high school will be focused more towards arts, music, humanities (history,politics,literature,languages,etc).

How it works:

A kid choosing Humanities path for example, still has to take sciences and math classes but they will not be the bulk of his classes. The purpose is to have the kid on the humanities path finish high school with the minimum required math and science skills he will need for university ...and which he would need to enter a science or math related degree should he change his mind on his path upon entering university.

For example, the humanities path math classes would be algebra, trigonometry and geometry. Science classes would be basic science, biology and chemistry. Those are the foundation classes that a kid will need to know if upon entering university he wants to pursue a science related degree. By high school graduation the humanities path will have covered history, government, arts, be fluent in a foreign language, play an instrument & know to write music, have taken classes in US literature and foreign literature, etc.

A Sciences path on the other hand would finish high school having seen physics, organic chemistry, calculus, anatomy, statistics, etc. The required humanities classes would be limited to US and general world history and english reading/writing classes (essay writing is important to science majors). That is all they will need to take the university level required humanities classes for any science related degrees.

- Changes to University and College system

All universities and colleges need to have their classes all have a universal class numbering system and name. Its stupid to have one university call a class 'LM1234 Lemonade' and another call the same class 'WL4367 Water&Lemon Mix'.

Once that universal class ID system is set, universities and colleges need to accept transient students without having to apply to another university and go through all the hoops and whistles of it. If I need to take one class for my degree that is offered in another state I should just have to submit ONE form to MY university as my application to be able to go out of state and take that class.

Required classes for degrees need to be focused on the degree itself. Its rather stupid to require a math major to take US. Gov, speech, 3 random humanities classes and a year of foreign language classes. Those mandatory classes have nothing to do with the major and everything to do with milking money out of a student and wasting his time. If those silly requirements were removed we'd see people graduating in 2 (intensive) or 3 (normal) years rather than 4 or 5.

University textbooks need to be made much cheaper. They are currently so expensive because each publisher has to peddle their books to individual professors rather than to the university itself.. or to an association of universities for that matter. If, instead, universities nationwide put out a call for publishers to present candidates for each class subject and only 4 textbooks per subject were chosen as acceptable nationwide... we'd have text book prices drop dramatically since every univ. in the country would be using one of those 4 books. Think of it of it being similar to how the military chooses which new weapon system to purchase & field.

(yes I'm bored today)

I think it is a mistake to classify learners too early. Some may enter secondary school with clear intentions, but it is all too easy to get buttonholed in the wrong area. That being said, I like the degree to which you recognize the value of the humanities and the fine arts.



I'm not sure that this is valuable, or even desirable. Universities and colleges can often do best when left alone to get on with the job of teaching. Students have choices, and universities' different approaches to undergraduate teaching allow students to choose those environments and approaches that suit them best.

There are already procedures in place for that small minority of students who choose to accumulate credits at other institutions, and I am not sure that the risk of commoditizing undergraduate classes is outweighed by the small benefit.



Here I disagree with you strongly. I am a firm believer that a broad, liberal arts approach to undergraduate education should not be dispensed with lightly--at least at the university level. Colleges can continue to provide focussed, vocational learning, but an undergraduate degree should not be approached in the same fashion.



But the flip side is that there would be fewer opportunities for authors of these texts, and greater pressure on university budgets as a result. (Typically academics write texts on the university's time, not on their own time). So what you save in textbook costs would probably wind up getting reflected in tuition.

I have earned four degrees at three very different universities. My undergraduate school, Mount Allison, is a very small (2,000 students) institution offering primarily undergraduate education in a limited number of disciplines. The focus very much on a liberal arts approach.

One of my professional degrees was earned at a larger campus (UNB Fredericton, about 8,000 students) where the focus was much more on professional training. There was still an undergraduate liberal arts component, but it was considerably smaller.

I also earned a second undergraduate degree and a different professional degree at one of the ancient universities (Cambridge), which was an entirely different academic experience, and intensely rewarding as a result. More than anything else, my time at Cambridge served to teach me that there is more than one way to educate a student.

I am probably a bit of a romantic, but I believe in the idea of universities as centres of learning--not merely training. I believe that graduands can be well rounded, not merely prepared for a single profession.