User:Alexander1257/A Dysfunctional Country

A great country, sort of
First off, I'd like to say that I believe that the United States is a great country. It has made unprecedented technological advances, from its formation less than 300 years ago to its current state as a socioeconomic power and a country that many undeveloped countries strive to be. Many of the world's greatest people hail from the U.S. and will forever be remembered as Americans. I love many elements of this country. So do many Americans. But is America really the superpower many claim it to be?

No. America has many problems which are masked by the things that everyone talks about, the new tech innovations, the next great company, etc. America has problems that its citizens, including me, never noticed before. We simply don't consider them problems - that's the problem.

Table of contents
* Standardized tests * MCAS * No Child Left Behind * No consideration for high-level performers * The problem with "adequate yearly progress" * Teachers' unions * Chicago teachers' strike * Spending efforts * Public schools * Crime in schools * Drug abuse in schools * Alcohol abuse in schools * Stereotypes * Student performance * Comparison to other nations * Funding ≠ improved performance * National School Lunch Program * Pizza is a vegetable? * Obesity * Preservatives & additives * Processed food, big chains * Media influence * Influence on food and consumption * Anorexia and bulimia * Drugs * Alcohol * DUI * Afghanistan * Consequences * Iraq * Consequences * Late troop pullout * Advertising * Online ads * TV ads * Celebrity endorsements * 'Forced endorsements' * Influence * Influence on consumer spending * Chicago * Chicago gang war * New York * Philadelphia * West Philadelphia * Appalachia * Los Angeles * Mara * Smuggling * Effect on crime in the U.S.  * Prisons * Terrible conditions * Continued restriction * Inequality * Hunger * Feeding America * Minorities * Crime correlation to poverty * Inner city correlation to poverty and minorities * EBT and SNAP Programs * Why food stamps don't work * Short-term help * Why short-term help doesn't work * How long-term help works * Why we don't provide long-term help * A partisan Congress, House, and Senate * Unsustainability * No renewable energy initiatives? * Keystone XL pipeline * Solar and wind energy in the U.S.  * Why we take it   * Why we shouldn't take it   * Why we don't take it
 * Education
 * Health
 * War
 * Media
 * Crime
 * Poverty
 * Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas
 * The easy path

Standardized tests
If you've been to at least one public school in America, you're guaranteed to take at least one standardized test. Standardized tests are test that test only one thing: memory. The questions on these tests are often badly worded and require only one simple statement as a written answer. Supporters of American public education argue that the No Child Left Behind act, which I'll describe in detail later, helped American 9-year-olds make their biggest progress in reading in 28 years. However, those tests were found to be cherry-picked. And remember, we're talking about the only country in the world where passing of a standardized test is required to graduate from high school.

MCAS
On paper, Massachusetts has the best public education program of all the states in the nation. Does that mean it's good? Not at all. The MCAS standardized test, which is another element of the No Child Left Behind act - a statewide, state-funded standardized test that all students must take. The MCAS requires students to get better in each year of high school, even if they already have very high scores. FEDERAL LAW requires that student must complete that "entire school year" again just because they failed to make progress on a test they've already mastered.

No Child Left Behind
The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into federal law by President George W. Bush during his first term, has to be one of the worst laws to ever be passed. It changed American public schools in drastic ways. Amazingly, the government thought that giving money to schools automatically increases test scores, the only thing that they care about. $1.1 billion was invested in a nationwide disadvantaged reading program, when we could have been doing much more intelligent things with that money.