Education

Education, to me, is the linchpin that defines the rate of success a country can have. Without education, there is rampant illiteracy, unemployment skyrockets - as does the transference of disease, birth rates, and likewise infant mortality rates. Education is important to me, not only because I live in a country where it is heralded by families, insisted upon by job creators, and even mandated by the government, but because I have chosen it as a career path.

It is not just LACK of education that makes this topic a global social crisis, it's the lack in QUALITY of education. When an educational system needs repair, there are statistics to support that need. The table below was created according to the Broad Foundation's statistics on K-12 public education in the U.S.:.
http://broadeducation.org/about/crisis_stats.html

These are figures that spell disaster for America's future as one of the leading nations in the world. The United States' educational performance, I believe, has an effect on the rest of the world. If Americans don't begin righting the ship of our own educational system, we will find ourselves ill-equipped to assist ourselves, let alone other countries in need.

There are countries like Mali, which suffer from lack of education. Their literacy rates hover around 30%. What types of education are available in countries like this? Is there a solution to this education deficit that has become so endemic to parts of the developing world?

Going forward, I plan to explore some of these questions in relation to current events and hope to inform and incite spirited discussion about these issues.