A large number of students say the United States education system is failing Americans and is only getting worse with time.

Students feel that they deserve better especially when they are paying outrageous amounts of money for an inferior education.

Aidan Crisonino, biology major at Cerritos College, said, “A major flaw of the American education system is the lack of reform or the lack of modernization actually of the whole structure.”

The American education system was originally created to produce factory workers and was institutionalized for the American citizen which enables them to do the bare minimum level of production work.

“I guess it somewhat accommodates us for college and prepares us for the future but it’s totally lacking in almost every resource that we really need for American life,” Crisonino said.

Vanesa Molina, an undecided student at Cerritos College, said she feels like schools should teach students more about real-life situations.

“Schools should teach more about money and real-life things like paying bills, how to use a credit card better. I feel like it’s not taught enough and because of that, they’re putting out employees who basically do what they’re told,” Molina said.

Students feel they would benefit more from learning actual daily life skills and not random things like the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell or y=mx+b.

A lot of students would agree that the work given to them doesn’t bring any value in educating them, instead, it’s just used as a tactic to pass the time and make it seem like they’re learning.

Crisonino said, “I think a lot of information that we learn is unnecessary and super drawn out and is more meant to pull money out of us instead of actually educating us.”

Molina goes on to talk about how schools expect too much out of their students and this causes daily stress or feelings of being overwhelmed and overworked.

“Even with essays they expect eight pages now that we’re in college but realistically that just causes students to add a bunch of bullshit into it,” she said, “ whereas something smaller could be more efficient, it could get to the point.”

According to the American College Health Association, 45.1% of students are stressed more than the average student and 12.7% experience tremendous amounts of stress. There are only 2.4% of students who have reported they are stress-free.

Being overworked and stressed all the time can easily affect a person’s mental health. ACHA conducted a study in 2018 where large numbers of students admitted to suffering from mental health issues.

Molina said, “I think schools care more about kids’ grades than their mental health…for example if a student falls asleep in class they get upset over that when literally school is the reason why kids are so drained.”

A huge factor in the decline of students’ mental health is their worrying about how they’re going to pay for college. Schools charge and have some sort of fee for every little thing they can think of.

In the K-12 system, schools get a certain amount of money from their district based on student attendance.

Some students feel like college is a scam and don’t feel like schools care about them but more about the money flowing out of their pockets.

“I think money is a much higher priority than the actual productivity, well-being and benefit to every individual American that goes through the system,” Crisonino said, “I think they try and get more money, definitely way more than they try and actually put you in a better place.”

Molina adds on by explaining how in high school they will call your parents and threaten with court if a student is absent but they never seem to care to ask why the student is missing school.

She mentions it’s different in college because since students pay their tuition up front, schools don’t bother them if they miss class a lot. After all, the student has already paid.

“In Europe, their education system is way better and I feel like everyone is far more advanced than Americans are,” Molina said.

Students feel alarmed at the thought of their future crumbling because of the bad education they feel they are receiving in the United States.