Failing school systems are all around us and affect millions of American students every day. Poor academic standards seem to be a rising topic in American society, while other countries are seeing an increase in education. America may be able to learn from other countries and apply their techniques. Not only are educational funds being spent on unnecessary areas of the school system, such as, after school activities and sports programs, but educational achievements are becoming less significant while students are praised for sporting achievements. Instead of cutting important classes from the school’s curriculum, educational funding management needs to address major flaws in the way money is being spent towards education. Sports programs and after school activities need to be lower on the list of importance while education should be the main goal of school systems within the country. Shortly after reading “Fremont High School” by Johnathan Kozol; striking similarities come to mind as memories of high school begin to arise. Memories of playing football and running track are among the more pleasant experiences of high school for most teenagers, but some schools are taking sports too seriously and spending educational funds on things such as sports equipment instead of important educational classes. Johnathan Kozol writes "nearly a third of all the classrooms in the school, were located in portables...took place in converted storage closets" (Kozol 641). Far too often are schools trying to save money by cutting classroom spending while funding for sports activities remain the same, or worse yet, they are being increased. Sports are embedded in American schools unlike any other country on the planet. Americans glorify athletes and pay them millions of dollars to play professionally, but is this the message our youth should be receiving? Other countries reward students for academic success and rarely offer sports as an extracurricular