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Growing New Jobs
11/13/08
07:35:50 am, Categories: Announcements [A] Nicholas Kristof has a compelling op-ed in today’s New York Times on why he thinks education should be a key part of Obama’s long-term plan for growing the economy.
In it, he echoes similar comments by Ed Trust VP Amy Wilkins from Monday’s Wall Street Journal:
[Mr. Obama] “talks about energy independence and green-collar jobs, but we are not going to have people to take all of these green-collar jobs unless we get serious about our schools very quickly.”
Professors Goldin and Katz crunch the data and conclude that America’s edge in mass education was the crucial competitive advantage that allowed the United States to build wealth while reducing income inequality.
For most of the 20th century, America prospered at the same time that the gap between the rich and poor diminished.
Then in the 1970s, the United States education system began to stagnate, with high-school graduation rates stuck at about three-quarters of all students. Probably as a result, income inequality increased again. Meanwhile, the rest of the world invested heavily in education and caught up with, and in some cases surpassed, us."
Kristof then goes on to make some recommendations about improving the quality of teaching (expanding alternative certification, reforming tenure, establishing incentives to get teachers to low-income areas).
All in all, especially since it was done in the short space of an op-ed, one of the best pieces on ed reform this season. A must-read.
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