Recent weeks have witnessed vastly different approaches to course correction for our country's recessed economy. From debt ceilings to deficit reductions, Democrats and Republicans diverge on the best vehicle to reinvigorate American's fiscal viability and workforce sustainability. Nowhere is this more obvious than education.
Democrats believe investments in transportation, infrastructure, energy and education are the key to a sustainable high-growth economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke supported this position in recent testimony to the House Budget Committee, saying that "wise investments in education, including community colleges and on-the-job training, are essential to lowering unemployment."
Republicans, in stark contrast, have proposed unprecedented cuts to education spending in recent resolutions. Not only are Republicans ignoring what the Federal Reserve is telling us, they are ignoring what recent scores on international competitiveness demonstrate: Investments in education are the key to our economic competitiveness.
The U.S., however, is increasingly losing its competitive edge when it comes to preparing our K-16 students in critical subjects like science, technology, engineering and math. In these subjects, our students consistently rank near the bottom in educational achievement among the world's 30 richest nations, according to the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores.
We are being out-competed because we are being out-invested, exacerbating the mismatch in our country between the skills needed for high-growth job sectors and our students' skill sets.
When we unpack PISA scores, it becomes clear that inequity in our school system is driving us down. The scores highlight how equity/inequity in education correlates directly with global competitiveness (or lack thereof). In reading, for example, the U.S. average score of 500 lags well behind global leaders. The reason: economic inequality. U.S. schools with smaller amounts of student poverty scored as high as 551, which trumped scores from high-ranking South Korea and Singapore and put us five points behind No. 1-ranking Shanghai. As poverty increases in our schools, however, our scores steadily decrease.
These results on competitiveness should guide our policymaking. We must make every school as good as the schools in our wealthiest communities.
To do this successfully, we must invest wisely. We cannot just pour more money into systems that are not getting the job done. We have to retool the systems so that they will be effective. That is exactly why the Department of Education recently launched the Equity and Excellence Commission. This nonpartisan commission, my brainchild in partnership with Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.), is a crucial piece of the puzzle if we are really going to have our "Sputnik moment" in public education. This is our opportunity to address the broken system of education finance and develop a plan for comprehensive school finance reform that is focused on high achievement for all students. It is also an effort that is crucial to the future of working Americans.
Two things make this commission special. First, it will not be housed in Washington and function behind closed doors. The commission will be active throughout our communities, conducting field hearings, town halls and focus groups in each region of the country to give students, parents, teachers, administrators, community groups, nonprofits and small- and large-business leaders the opportunity to engage in the process. In addition, the Department of Education's Office of Community Outreach will hold a dozen focus groups and community meetings nationwide in order to expand the commission's reach. For education reform, this will be an important, albeit rare, opportunity for the grass-tops leaders to listen to the grassroots, where the true expertise resides.
Second, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has appointed a remarkable panel of commissioners to perform this work. The panel includes stakeholders from across the political spectrum with the experience, expertise and gravitas to get the job done. For the first time, the commission will bring to the table every side of the fractious debate, with a mandate to find practical and pragmatic solutions for education finance.
We have known for years that equal opportunity is a fallacy in our public schools. With schools primarily financed by local property tax dollars, there is nothing fair about the quality of schools for our working and middle-class families. Our children should have an equal opportunity to achieve prosperity. Closing our achievement gap, however, is not just about those at the bottom -- it is about making sure that every working neighborhood has a world-class school. I hope we will seize the opportunity to make this a true Sputnik moment for each of our children.
This is the key to building a strong and sustainable American workforce and an industry that will keep us internationally competitive. If we do not invest in our children, who are clearly the workforce of our tomorrow, we lose out. The costs incurred by Republican cuts must be counted. This no-jobs agenda is quickly leading to a no-jobs future.
Rep Michael Honda, a former teacher, principal and school-board member, serves on the House Appropriations and Budget committees and is Democratic senior whip. Follow Rep Honda on Facebook and Twitter. This article was originally published in The Hill.
http://theeducatedsociety.com/americas-outlook-looking-ahead-or-looking-back
Other things have remained the same. I still have students who cannot add or subtract without the aid of a calculator (no, I'm not kidding). The binomial equation of the Hardy-Weinberg Theorum still mystifies most. In general, their written work remains barely legible (although there are always exceptional students who write well) and their logical reasoning skills suspect. Despite all the smoke and noise over NCLB and improving standards, the average US high school senior is still largely unprepared for college work and beyond.
Best of luck in turning things around. I'm not going to be holding my breath.
This kind of person and these kinds of people ARE NOT what makes for good corporate employees...or should I say slaves?
Nor does the presence of Arne Duncan, an education secretary who would have been perfectly at home in the Bush administration, reassure me.
You may be excited sir, but I am not.
Budget cuts are an excuse for terrible performance for years. Before anyone talked budget cuts the schools sucked.
Smokescreen
The gov't's continuous cry for money as the solution ignores a generation of more and more funds going down the gullet of mismanagement. For once, I'd like to see gov't try and actually be responsible for better service at a better price. If google or cisco or IBM ran like the gov't they would be out of business long ago.
"Show me a teabagger who doesn't vote their feelings..The entire Tea Party "movement" is based on emotion. On angry, hot, flowing, oozing emotion. If you're a college student and you're reading this, it's your turn to be angry over this little clip of New Hampshire House Speaker Bill O'Brien explaining why he wants to disenfranchise you and stop you from voting.
TPM:
"They go into these general elections, they'll have 900 same day registrations, which are the kids coming out of the schools and basically doing what I did when I was a kid, which is [vote liberal]," he said. "They don't have life experience and they don't have life experience and they just vote their feelings and they're taking away the town's ability to govern themselves, it's not fair."
The remarks were caught on tape by a tracker with the New Hampshire Democratic party, but up until today they haven't caused O'Brien much embarrassment.
..it is offensive, condescending and selfish, which is to be expected from the far right wing these days. But when it backs up a defense of Voter ID initiatives in 18 states which in turn is backed up by the Koch/Bradley/Olin triumvirate in the form of an organization known as ALEC, whose "Private Enterprise Board" includes Mike Morgan (Koch Industries), Toby Spangler (Altria Client Services), and not one, but two representatives from the American Bail Coalition, it should definitely cause winger alert radar to bleep loudly."
Is this another case of "when in doubt, form a commission".
We have data from studies in abundance. We've seen that funding and student performance have little correlation. We've seen that impoversihed kids do not do as well as more affluent kids. We've seen that good teachers make all of the difference.
All of these studies and no one can propose a sensible way of improving student performance while controlling costs?
Better form another commission.
The solution is quite simple, and really inexpensive. Give parents a choice. Let parents decide whether their local school is meeting their child's needs or not. If the parents don't believe the local school is giving their child what he / she needs, then let them move their child to another school, even a private school, and take their education dollars with them.
The Dems along with their shills, the Teachers Unions say NO! They dont want our kids to have any choice on where to go. I might cost them some of that juicy funding they have been wasting.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/03/09/2122712/education-its-no-longer-the-answer.html
Both the left and the right are starting to say that we need to keep the jobs we have here in America and we need to bring jobs back through our national policy. Two good references on the subject are Free Trade Doesn't Work by Ian Fletcher and Bringing America Home by Tom Pauken.