After spending trillions on wars to protect our shores and to bring democracy to faraway lands, the nation's number-one threat and weapon of mass destruction is decreasing opportunities for its citizens. In short, the United States is imploding from within.
America was once thought of as the leader of the free world. Now, huge wealth disparities, along with inequitable distribution of educational resources and poor school discipline and criminal justice policies, have created the perfect cocktail to make the United States the world leader in incarceration rates. This is not the road map to lead the free world.
Over the next 30 years, U.S. cities and states probably will be defined by what happens with the bottom two-thirds of citizens rather than the top one-third. In the global networked world of the 21st Century, the top third will be highly mobile, and the nationwide competition for talent and high wages will become global.
But think about what we are up against: As they increase in percentage of the population, Blacks and Hispanics have a high school graduation rate that is 21 points behind that of Whites, or just 57 percent, according to a recent Education Week report. Only one-third of Americans have any college or postsecondary credentials, and the bottom two-thirds of Americans are more likely to drop out of schools and to be incarcerated. The bottom two-thirds of Americans control less than 15 percent of the nation's wealth.
Having a high-quality education system for all students regardless of the ZIP codes in which they live is not only the democratic measure for leadership, it is increasingly the major determinant of a nation's economic fate.
Fortunately, we can look at other industrialized countries for models for turning things around in a relatively short time. Recently, along with other education funders, I spent time in Ontario, Canada, whose education system has made remarkable gains over a seven- to 10-year period.
Ontario and other education systems are featured in a new report from the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) on how high-flying nations have turned around their schools. "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants" reviews what policies might look like in United States if we were to incorporate the lessons learned in [Ontario,] Canada, [Shanghai,] China, Finland, Japan, and Singapore.
Here are just three of the lessons we can draw from as we prepare for an uncertain future:
This sounds all too familiar. While President Barack Obama's national goal is to have the United States become a global leader in postsecondary attainment by 2020, receiving a quality education in this country remains influenced more by ZIP code than by students' abilities.
We cannot raise student performance and close the achievement gap without first addressing America's unconscionable and growing opportunity gap. The pertinent NCEE report data are very compelling. When the top industrial nations shifted their focus to commit to improving educational opportunity for all, interesting things happened. Ineffective strategies were abandoned, such as giving only some students intellectually demanding curricula, recruiting only a few teachers who are themselves highly educated, and directing funding toward the easiest-to-educate and denying it to those hardest to educate.
For more than a decade, the United States has been identifying and protecting itself from external threats to its democracy. However, it is clear that the biggest threat we face is from within. The American battle of the 21st Century involves addressing our internal equity challenges. We can continue to lock up our future and limit the potential of our education system and economy for most Americans. Or we can reaffirm the role of public education in our nation's prosperity. It's our choice.
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1) States and municipalities are slashing funds for education as revenue streams dry up
2) Educators are being targeted as the villains rather than the saviors of our education system
3) Whole generations of minority youth are being criminalized rather than educated, more is spent on educating young adults in Crime Colleges (Penitentiaries) than in Community Colleges
4) Science education is being undermined by religious dogmatism
5) Public education is being subverted by efforts at privatization, schools for profit rather than education
Bottom line, all those minimum wage jobs will come flocking back home as developing countries become more educated than we are.
3."They focused on improving the overall quality of their educational systems and achievement. As the United States moves closer to common core curricula, we must guarantee students' access to high-quality early education, ensure that they are on grade level in reading by the end of third grade..."
Why isn't there a national outcry when we as educators try to hold students accountable? Read this headline from Palm Beach, Fla. by Allison Ross on Sat., June4, 2011:
3rd-graders who fail reading FCAT not held back -- despite state rule
Those who make these types of decisions must be replaced if we really cared about our future.
You almost lost me there. First sentence.Those wars have nothing to do with any urge to "protect our shores and to bring democracy to faraway lands". They are what we do instead of an economy.
Just as farfetched is the notion that anyone in power cares about educating poor kids. For what? They have no intention of providing jobs for those kids.
The people running the US now, both parties, do not have the best interests of the people at heart. They have abandoned us. It is time to throw them out. Same Constitution, new parties that will respect it. Then we can start on the corporations.
If the people do not take the country back, we are doomed. We will end up in a plutocratic theocracy, freedom an illegal dream.
Every several decades, our country is faced with a choice of whether we will be a nation united or divided. The Civil War ended slavery. The 30s Great Depression ushered in new social supports. The 50s and 60s tackled segregation. Today, we must address education and opportunity. If we continue to offer solutions that separate people and states, we will be a nation divided and a nation at risk.
You're basically preaching to the choir on this website. It's gonna be a long fight - read some Noam Chomskey, rest up, and do what you can.
We can't afford to wait until a child is five or six before starting formal instruction. We need a free, universal and inclusive accredited preschool program that includes kinder for every child. Public school becomes PreK-16.
What is the point in educating students when they can't afford to go to college? With state budgets cutting and cutting state universities are becoming as unaffordable as private universities.
What is the point of getting a high school diploma? There aren't many jobs for high school graduates with no training. A university diploma is no guarantee either.
We need trade school/training programs back in our middle and high schools. Notice how this county's obesity program has grown as the old "Home Economics" classes have been cut from school curriculums? We need those shop classes back, but updated. Is there any reason high schools can't have auto shop classes that include the new computer diagnostics, etc? Instead of wood shop, how about retail?
The only thing the last ten years of school reform have done is to train students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. I don't know of any jobs for which this is a pre-requisite. There are no jobs for bubble-filler-inner that I know of.
In order to reverse our demise huge investments must be made in education, coupled with some fundamental changes in our public education system. Changes that prepare our children to compete effectively in the world marke ,ust be implementedt. We also need to revamp our tax system and state budget priorities to ensure adequate budgets for our public education system.
I am afraid, however that too many forces are at work to prevent these actions from taking place. With Republicans and Tea Party members in our legislatures demanding fewer regulations, lower taxes and less government intrusion in our lives we are doomes to remain on this death spiral. The pendulum does swing, but in this case it may be far too late when our lawmakers recognize their folly.
A nation raised on TV is a passive nation. I am not hopeful.
Yes, yes yes you would have public school with the not so great but then they could be taught real knowledge they will use instead of what is good to get into college.
An overlooked element are the "pull" elements or the demand side of the equation. For an education system to improve, people must want it to improve. Parents need to "tiger up", employers must demand academically qualified staff, the government must provide opportunities for academically qualified people, society must respect academic qualifications. All of this happens in China, Finland, Japan and Singapore which is why their education systems are so much better. None of this will happen in the US, so it is hard to imagine education improving.
Do you want the United States to be 'leader-of-the-freeworld' once again?...then put TBTF in RECEIVERSHIP/BANKRUPCTY and let Wall Street/City of London choke on their trillions of losses.
...not US taxpayers.