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| Laura Brown |
Governors from 45 states attended the first National Education Summit last week to hear how America’s high schools are failing to turn out students who can succeed in college and the workplace. National Governors’ Association Chairman, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, revealed the following information from the Manhattan Institute and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education statistics:
- 68 of every 100 ninth-graders graduate on time.
- About half of African-American and Hispanic youth graduate and fewer than 20 percent are ready for college-level academics
- Half of all high school graduates do not have the knowledge or skills to succeed in college.
- Only 18 out of 100 graduate from college in 4 years.
- U.S. high schools perform near the bottom of all industrialized countries
- U.S. high schools have the highest drop out rates of all industrialized countries
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates called on governors to enact policy that will result in rigorous high school instruction. "America's high schools are obsolete," Gates said. "By obsolete, I don't just mean that they're broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points.” Gates compared high schools today to mainframe computers of the '50s.
Solutions presented during the conference include:
- Aligning high school graduation requirements with college-readiness standards
- Helping low-performing schools and students
- Increasing the number of high-quality teachers and principals
- Collecting data to better measure progress
- Strengthening accountability for high schools and colleges
- Integrating K-12 and postsecondary education.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested approx. $1 billion for research and redesign of public high schools based on 3Rs, Rigor, Relevance and Relationships, which has not led to improvement in public education. However, at the NGA conference, Gates offered more specific solutions to the U.S. education crisis when he called for rigorous college courses for all high school students, school choice, performance-oriented employee contracts and the publication of measurable data. Many of his suggestions mirror initiatives included under No Child Left Behind.
Governors and Legislatures Not on Same Page for School Reform
Meanwhile, the National Conference of State Legislatures Task Force on No Child Left Behind issued its final report with findings that the federal government really has no constitutional basis to control education in the states and further recommends throughout the 87-page document that the federal government loosen up on most of the requirements of NCLB.
In summary, the task force finds that it is not realistic to expect public education to ensure that all children to become “proficient” in core subjects like English, math, history and science.
This conclusion begs the question: why are taxpayers forced to pay for a government education system that cannot and will not educate most children to a level that allows them to go on to higher education and skilled employment? Secondly, why are parents forced to keep their children trapped in a system that ensures the failure of at least half of all students?
Rather than holding conferences, forming task forces and funding research on how to fix the public education “system,” governors, senators, representatives and businesses should be pushing policy and laws that allow parents to choose a decent education for their children immediately before further harm is done.
References:
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/press/2005/pr050223.htm
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_03.htm
http://www.highereducation.org/reports/reports_center.shtml
Laura Brown is the education reporter and researcher for HawaiiReporter.com and the education policy analyst for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. She can be reached via email at mailto:laurabrown@hawaii.rr.com
This editorial is intended to provoke thought, discussion and an examination of issues. It does not reflect official policy of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. See the GRIH Web site at: http://www.grassrootinstitute.org/
HawaiiReporter.com reports the real news, and prints all editorials submitted, even if they do not represent the viewpoint of the editors, as long as they are written clearly. Send editorials to mailto:Malia@HawaiiReporter.com
Offshoots
WHEN WILL WE WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COMPETITION?
Daily Policy Digest
EDUCATION
Friday, Feb. 25, 2005
U.S. corporations are begging for talent, as foreign scientists and engineers increasingly find well-paying jobs on their own doorsteps. Consequently, the balance of innovation has begun to tilt eastward, as China and India start taking their own products to market. For the first time, other nations are about to produce more U.S. patents per year than the United States, says Craig R. Barrett is CEO of Intel Corporation.
China and India are expanding their university-level math, science and engineering programs at a pace comparable to the United States after World War II. Asian colleges now produce six times the number of engineering degrees produced here.
As psychologists report, human beings tend to put off necessary changes until the moment they begin to feel pain. And, by and large, the pain hasn't reached us yet, says Barrett:
A $618 billion U.S. trade deficit doesn't hurt when Americans can fill their homes with the latest discount electronic gadgets and designer duds produced in Asia.
Though downsizing and outsourcing produce great discomfort for a few, most remain unaffected.
And while the dollar has taken a record-breaking tumble against the euro and the yen, Americans can get credit at the lowest interest rates in 50 years.
Perhaps what's needed is another good punch in the eye, like the one we had in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the world's first satellite, says Barrett.
Jolted by the competition, the United States pushed for excellence in mathematics and science, resulting in dramatic increases in enrollments and then in the number of scientists and engineers. These workers created new generations of technology and commercial applications that led to the United States' preeminence in the global economy.
Source: Craig R. Barrett, "Educational complacency will make U.S. feel the pain," USA Today, February 24, 2005.
For text:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050224/opcom24.art.htm
For more on Education: Curriculum and Math:
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/edu/
Sprout of the Day
"Back in the days of the divine rights of kings, it might be understandable why a given monarch might think that what he wanted was all that mattered. But, in an age of democracy, how can millions of people live together if each one asserts a divine right to impose his or her will on others?"
-Thomas Sowell
