PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Public Education in the United States, programs of instruction (1) _______ to children, adolescents, and adults in the United States through schools and colleges (2) _______ by state and local governments. (3) _______ the nationally regulated and financed education (4) _______ of many other industrialized societies, American public education is (5) _______ the responsibility of the states and individual school districts.
The national system of formal (6) _______ in the United States developed in the 19th century. It differed (7) _______ education systems of other Western societies in three fundamental respects. (8) _______, Americans were more inclined to regard education (9) _______ a solution to various social problems. Second, (10) _______ they had this confidence in the power of education, Americans (11) _______ more years of schooling for a larger percentage of the population than (12) _______ countries. Third, educational institutions were primarily governed by local (13) _______ rather than by federal ones.
The (14) _______ notable characteristic of the American education system is the (15) _______ number of people it serves. In 2002, 86 percent of Americans (16) _______ age 25 and 29 had graduated (17) _______ high school, 58 percent had (18) _______ at least some college, and 29 percent had earned at (19) _______ a bachelor’s degree. Expanding access to college education is an important priority (20) _______ the U.S. government.