and laws at places and understand they are for our protection. We should fight terrorism with understanding (Alter). As Americans, we should continue to fight these new problems facing us and to try and tackle the old problems as well. Our children are our most important future and we need to protect them and educate them better than ever before.There are many reasons why the nation's educational system is failing its children. Originally, formal schooling was set up to "Americanize" immigrants (Lieberman 41). There has been a decline in birthrates since the 1960s, yet lower socioeconomic group's birth rates remain the same. This means more middle-class and lower class children are attending public school, while though upper class children are attending private schools. Adults in low-income families are less activity politically and generally are less involved in their children's education (Lieberman 9). There has also been a great increase in the population of senior citizens. Those older than 45 make up 35.9% of the population. Senior citizens tend to care less about supporting monies for education and more about health care. In 1987, federal spending on senior citizens per person averaged around $10,000, while average spending per child was only $854 (Lieberman 21). Changes in the family such as single parent homes, divorces, and poverty affect the education of children greatly. In 1987, 9.4 million women had children with no father involved in their children's life. Of those families, 53.3% of those fathers did not pay any kind of child support (Lieberman 25). Also, more than one million children under the age of 18 are directly involved in a divorce each year. In 1996, 14% of the American population lived in poverty, 20.5% of which were children under 18 (Quiram 12). Families are not the only ones to blame for the lack of quality education in the United States. Eighty-five percent of the costs of public schools are...
