U.S. Education Changes: Helping or Harming the High-Tech Edge?
Over the past few months, I’ve read a number of articles that highlight significant changes in America’s education practices. While each change taken by itself seems a sound step towards dealing with the lack of qualified teachers, in aggregate these steps represent a potential regression in American youth education on the global competitive stage.
I grew up with a parent who was a trained educator. I was acutely aware of the value of a good education and the need to achieve in order to improve life options. I observed that teachers in our community were respected and teaching was considered a good profession to aspire to. You could earn a good living being a teacher and be respected….not so much so now.
In today’s world, teachers are underpaid and not respected by students, parents or their communities in general. The myriad of stories are legion, about teachers who have to work part time jobs to make ends meet or frequent food banks to feed their own families while dealing with ever more challenging classroom environments. This situation isnt contained to a specific geographic area nor is it restricted by urban or rural settings. Its endemic through the country.
Many communities have enacted policies such as shorter school weeks to boost perceived teacher salaries and save money on operating costs. Other communities are using video conferencing to “virtually import” teachers to classrooms which are staffed by teaching assistants but not actually teachers. All of these are innovative in their approach but what is the impact on the education process from a global competitive perspective?
In many other countries the value of a education is seen as much more paramount a concern. In Japan for instance, children attend school during the day and then undertake “juku” cramming courses after hours to supplement their education. In countries such as Ghana, the # of private universities is growing and the use of MOOC programs to import high end course learning is becoming regular practice. How does this impact us in the long run?
I live my life in the high tech entrepreneurial sector. That sector thrives in dense, diverse urban regions. The underlying engine of success of our tech communities in the U.S. has been the ability to attract highly educated people from many backgrounds from around the world. My concern is that we we are producing fewer and fewer of those type of people organically will those highly educated people from other countries then be attracted to other places where those populations are coalescing? Will Berlin, Singapore or Hanzhou becoming the new magnets for the highly educated creative class? One thing is for certain if we are consistently under educating our own youth then fewer and fewer of them will be able to compete on the global stage whether it is in Seattle or Helsinki.
Regardless of whether one views the U.S. through a globalist or nationalist lens, to compete and remain a strong and vibrant economy we mush remain a strong source of highly educated creative people. This means we must commit to the basics and educate our entire community of youth. This means massive reinvestment in teachers, students and the entire process. It is in our own best interests. While sending your child to private school might protect them from the direct impacts of poor education practices, it does not save them from the impacts of poor community education. Increased crime, social programs and community degradation all are a function of the opportunities provided or not provided as a part of having a good sound education.
Have a read of the attached articles below and hope that you elect to dig in further.
