One in seven adults in America will not be able to read this document (Toppo). This is a disturbing truth to me, because if they can't read this newspaper, then what can they read? There are many factors that have led to the failure of the United States education system. Some of the key factors that have led to this ongoing problem are related to the financial difficulties we are facing. Cuts to teacher and school budgets are hitting education hard. Schools are turning to standardized tests to determine whether a student has learned what they were supposed to learn across the curriculum. These testing methods, imposed on students and teachers, impact the classroom by forcing teachers to rely more on teaching about testing methods and what the test might contain. This can also distract students from learning the curriculum and focusing on passing these standardized tests. Furthermore, as time goes by it seems that the education system should improve, which should result in an improvement in our literacy rate. While the situation is not improving, we are instead stuck while other countries reduce their illiteracy rate. All these reasons have proven that the American education system is failing and broke. With the current economic crisis, teacher budgets are being cut. This has many knock-on effects that the government needs to understand. Budget cuts affect not only teachers, but also students, providing them with fewer classroom supplies like textbooks and learning tools that keep students interested by doing fun activities. Without being able to update textbooks due to lack of funding, students will have to learn outdated information and learn incorrect information. There will also be fewer purchases of technology... half of paper... and taxpayer money. Works Cited"Albert Einstein Quotes." ThinkExist.com Quotes. ThinkExist.com, n.d. Web. April 15, 2011. Athavale, Grishma. “US education lags behind that of other countries.” Saratoga Falcon, October 29, 2009. Web April 27, 2011 School Board Journal, 1997. 1. The American School Board Journal. Web April 15, 2011. Kelly, Melissa “Teachers and Budget Cuts: How Budget Cuts Affect Teachers.” New York Times, nd Web. April 15, 2011. Toppo, Greg. "Literacy Study: 1 in 7 U.S. Adults Can't Read This Story - USA Today USA Today, January 08, 2009. Web. April 15, 2011 Young, Katie. "Against Standardized Testing".. 2011.