Education reform key to competing in future

President and CEO, National Urban League
An independent commission on education I serve upon recently concluded that the U.S. educational system needs a major overhaul by 2021 to properly equip future workers to cope with a rapidly globalizing marketplace.

In the report entitled “Tough Choices or Tough Times,” the so-called New Commission on Skills in the Workplace proposes cutting high school short at 10th grade for qualified students, investing the savings into increasing teachers’ salaries and creating more pre-school programs, among other reforms.

“The first commission, in 1990, never dreamed that we would end up competing with countries that could offer large numbers of highly educated workers willing to work for low wages. American workers must match their education levels — a big challenge — but our workers’ wages will still fall unless we can offer something else, and that is a capacity for endless creativity and innovation,” noted Charles Knapp, chairman of the bipartisan panel.

If our nation doesn’t do anything, future generations of Americans might be relegated to a life of flipping burgers instead of designing semi-conductors or running their own businesses. We can pretty much kiss our current standard of living goodbye in 50 years if we don’t act now. 

Over the past 30 years or so, total expenditures for pre-college education nationwide have nearly doubled — from $212 billion (in current dollars) in 1970 to $511.2 billion in 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract for 2007. Even so, our students lag behind in mathematical and scientific skills — ranking 16th and 13th, respectively, in 2003, among students in the world’s most developed countries.

Minorities in the U.S. are at an even greater disadvantage. According to the latest National Assessment for Educational Progress — otherwise known as the nation’s report card — the gap between percentage of white and black fourth graders proficient in math and reading actually grew despite implementation of the ambitious No Child Left Behind education law, the ultimate goal of which is to narrow the divide by 2014.

In the 1950s, jobs didn’t require the kind of education they do now. In 1957, 2.9 percent of blacks 25 years old and over held college degrees, compared to 7.6 percent of all Americans.

By 2005, 17.5 percent had graduated from at least an undergraduate institution, compared to 27.6 percent nationwide. And on average, black college graduates made an average of $20,000 a year more than those with just high school diplomas.

A higher level of education is now required to produce the innovation needed to keep the nation competitive worldwide and to help minorities in the U.S. achieve economic parity with white Americans.

Occupations in the fields of computer science and math and in architecture and engineering drew the highest average weekly wages in 2005. African Americans, however, only made up at most 7 percent of the workforce in these fields.

The lowest-paying jobs were in fields that do not require advanced education — food preparation and related services ($356 per week), farming and fishing ($372) and building and grounds maintenance ($394). In 2005, blacks made up 11.2 percent of the food service industry.   

Since the mid-1970s, education has definitely improved for African Americans. High school dropout rates have declined from 27.3 percent to 15.1 percent from 1975 to 2004. Unemployment rates of blacks with high school diplomas have fallen, from 26.1 percent to 18.3 percent from 1980 to 2005.

Our community has also made great progress in terms of enrollment in institutions of higher education at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels — nearly doubling from 1.2 million to 2.16 million. However, as concluded in a September study, blacks are less likely to leave college with degrees.

Yet, there is a bright spot: early childhood education, which the commission’s report highlighted as a way to teach children the skills needed to compete against the world.

An increasing and higher percentage of blacks attended pre-primary school programs — 67 percent compared to 63 percent of whites in 2004. Back in 1980, the tables were reversed — 34.9 percent versus 37.8 percent.

Of black children not enrolled in kindergarten and between the ages of three and five in 2005, 24 percent could recognize letters and 61 percent could write their own name. It’s a major improvement from 1993, when 18 percent of black youngsters could identify letters and 45 percent decipher their name. 

Young blacks are also more likely than their white counterparts to count to 20 or higher — 69 percent compared to 65 percent. They are still less likely to read or pretend to read storybooks and to possess three to four skills, but, even when they lagged behind white children, they still made progress.

This bodes well not only for our nation’s future but the African American community. If our educational system can keep these students engaged and excited about learning as they progress through school over the next decade, there is some hope that we’ll be able to produce future generations of workers capable of competing on the world stage.