U.S. Education Today and Tomorrow
Ryan Beverley
Grand Canyon University
EDU-576 Philosophical and Social Issues in Education

There are many trends in today’s world that will impact the way in which education in America will evolve in the future. The first trend that is the most obvious when looking at education is the fact that the population of America is changing. Parents are growing older and the population itself is becoming increasingly diverse. To me, this can only have an overall positive effect on the education system in the future. The age of the population is changing rapidly due to the “baby boomers.” When considering the oldest section of the population, those ages 85 and up, there were “nearly twice as many in 2010 as there were in 1990” (Scommegna, 2004). This means that policy maker have to take the considerations of this group into account when considering what their agenda will be. This can be detrimental to education in the short run because the focus of the policies we pass are spread around among a greater area of focus. However, those same baby boomers “married less often, and had fewer children” (Scommegna, 2004), which means that when they pass on, the field of education can become a larger focus. As far as diversity goes, in my opinion, more diversity can only be a good thing for our children to be exposed to. According to research, “the population representing "all other races" — a category that includes American Indians, Alaska Natives, Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders, as well as those who indicated two or more races on census forms — is also expected to triple between 2000 and 2050, growing from 7 million to about 22 million” (Scommegna, 2004). This means that as time goes on, more and more children will be attending school with someone from a different cultural and ethnic background than themselves. What this means is that by proxy they will learn something about that person’s life and culture, which leads to greater tolerance for something new and different among those children. The concept of school choice is something that has really only gained traction in the last couple of decades. With today’s world being more open with regards to things like the Internet and the media, parents are able to get much more information about the school that their children attend as well as the teachers who are teaching them. This can lead to parents being able to make more informed decisions about where they want their kids to go to learn. This can be a good thing in some regards, because as a parent, I of course want what is best for my kids in this world, and that includes making sure they get the best possible education. Usually this idea of choice really boiled down to parents either sending their kids to either public school or a private school, but now there are also school districts that are considering vouchers that would allow parents to choose to send their kids to any school that is within their school district or private schools as well. The problem that I have with this idea though, comes from me growing up in a small town. In a smaller town, or a rural area in general, there is usually no real choices for parents available, as there is usually just the local school. The only other choice they could really have would be to have their children attend a school that could be a 30 minute drive away. Even in a large city, this could lead to a disproportionate amount of children attending one school which could cause other schools to suffer in both attendance and money coming into the school. I also think that fully privatizing schools would be a very bad thing, because the bottom line is that for businesses, their main priority is to make a profit. Even if that business were to be a school, their primary goal is to make money. I feel that a private school system would be willing to short change things that could improve the education experience for the students for