Education in America (1648)

Education in the United States is administered chiefly by the states. There are more than 3,500 institutions of higher learning, both privately supported and state supported.

The United States does not have a national system of education. Education is considered to be a matter of the people of each state. Although there is a federal Department of Education, its function is merely to gather information, to advice and to help finance certain educational programs.

Each of the 50 state legislatures is free to determine its own system for its own public schools. Each sets whatever basic, minimal requirements for teaching. That's why there is an enormous amount of variety and flexibility in elementary, secondary and higher (university) education throughout the nation.

Colleges and universities, whether state or private, are quite free to determine their own individual standards, admissions, and graduation requirements.

Adult and continuing types of education, as well as distance education, enjoy great popularity among the Americans. They offer everything from a short professional course to a graduate degree in the United States. Under the distance education model, students no longer attend classes in a classroom on a campus. Instead, classes are delivered "from a distance" through the use of technologies such as the Internet, satellite television, video conferencing, and other means of electronic delivery. For international students this means that they can study for a degree without leaving their home country, though they will almost certainly have to go to the United States for short periods of face-to-face contact and study on the campus. Studying for a degree using distance education requires students to have special qualities such as self-discipline and the ability to work on their own.

Education has always been seen as a way of "bettering oneself”, of "rising in the world", as a fundamental part of the American Dream.

***