Time and time again California students have been shown not to meet up to either their expectations or those of the nation. Despite the huge amount of money that is budgeted for education test scores continue to stay low and each new academic study seems to show another dismal statistic about the ineffectiveness of our efforts. It is now becoming clear that our educational deficits are found not just in the later years of high school and university/college schooling, but also all the way down to the first grades. This across the board situation lends credence to the problem being rooted in an initial deficiency in the system, that being the very beginning of a child's school experience. Such an important aspect of our educational system should be a top priority for revision in order to achieve the educational hopes that this society holds.
The importance of operating an effective educational system should be extremely appreciated by our state and nation. The degradation of knowledge can be seen in many of our communities, from the advancing college student that has nothing but the faintest grasp of the written English language to the homemaker that can't keep up with their budget because of lack of basic math. Authors like E.D. Hirsch place importance on achieving literate education beyond the simple "getting a good job" or "functioning in everyday society" goals that have all been heard before. "The complex undertakings of modern life depend on the cooperation of many people with different specialties in different locations. Where communications fail, so do the undertakings" (Belasco 287). What it comes down to, for the policymakers and other leadership, is that our country can not continue to be first rate while continually graduating second rate students. .
Starting poorly on a task will make the end goal incredibly more difficult to attain; yet when looking at the education reform topics that concern the majority of America we see little besides discussion on high school or college curriculums and advancement.