Bill For Grade Inflation

I was reading an article that directly relates to myself as a college student, as I will be in college for at least a few more years before graduating. The bill for grade inflation would alter funding depending on a schools graduation rate. I agree with the author in saying that if a school is going to get more money for more kids graduating, they are likely to curve or inflate the grades in order to achieve this. I also agree with the author in believing this is a bad thing. I believe the author is writing to a large portion of people because many people will be affected by higher education in the state of Texas sooner or later.

The author makes a few very logical arguments, the first being that, "The bottom line is that schools shouldn't be deterred financially from setting high standards and professors ought to be able to flunk an entire class that doesn't meet them." A teacher being pressured into changing grades even if the students didn't work hard enough to deserve these grades is ridiculous just so the school can have some financial gain.

The author further argues that by lowering the cost of college and by improving earlier education we can help to improve graduation rates which is what this bill is overall trying to do. Again the author provides a very logical argument in the fact that if we are better educated in kindergarten through the twelfth grade, the challenges that are sometimes presented to us in college and in our upper level classes won't be impossible to overcome. However, if we are babied as many are in high school completing all of the sometimes tough and challenging obstacles will be impossible. Also some of the hardest working most motivated kids that work for everything they have are unable to attend college simply because they can't afford it. These are the kids that need to be in college. They will really be able to push themselves with their drive and become successful in whatever they want to be.

I think the main gist the author is trying to argue is that this bill needs to be rejected and other steps need to be taken to make sure our education system is successful. He presents very logical arguments to accomplish this and I completely agree with him. The author is simply listed as the editorial board, but since this editorial has been written and published by a respectable news paper I believe that it is credible.

While searching for editorials I came across this article which tells how some of Austin's high schools are doing. Furthermore from reading these statistics and personal experience I believe the author makes an even more logical argument. The above article mentions that the high school that I attended is ranked 47th in the nation. I feel like I received a great education there, and was well prepared for college and the challenges that are ahead. When I got to Texas A&M I was very surprised that some so-called valedictorians were less than impressive and much less prepared for the curriculum and college itself. The author's argument that education needs to be improved from kindergarten to twelfth grades is extremely true and it needs to happen across the state so we can begin to see higher and higher success rates in college.