Education, Inc.
Tuesday, 26 August 2014 10:28By Tim Scott and Deborah Keisch, Truthout | News Analysis
Presidential administration proclamations about the state of public education over the past 30 years:
1983: "Our Nation is at risk. . . . the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded. . . .[and] threatens our very future as a Nation and a people."
- President Reagan's policy report titled "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform"
1991: "For the sake of the future, of our children and of the nation's, we must transform America's schools. . . . if the United States is to maintain a strong and growing economy into the next century."
- President H.W. Bush's "AMERICA 2000: An Education Strategy"
1994: "To get beyond the crisis of education that we've talked and talked about. . . . We need to raise the standards to essentially reinvent our educational system to fit this new economy."
- President Clinton's Secretary of Education Richard Riley
2004: "The educational system itself needed to be reformed - transformed. . . . to improve education. . . . American business must be involved. If we can improve the educational system, we can improve the corporate bottom line."
- President George W. Bush's Secretary of Education Rod Paige, addressing the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce
2012: "Far too many students aren't getting the high-quality education and training they need to compete for jobs in the knowledge-based economy. . . . We have an education crisis in our country. . . . We have to act boldly and decisively to turn the tide."
- President Obama's Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, writing for the US Chamber of Commerce
Public education in the United States is in a state of crisis. We know this because we have heard the warning from government officials of both political parties over the past 30 years. We have also heard that if we don't fix this crisis, the United States and the "American way of life" is in jeopardy of losing its global economic competitiveness and superiority. We are told that our schools aren't doing the job we need them to do, with a quarter of our children dropping out of high school every year, and still two-fifths of those who do graduate leave high school unprepared for college or a career, while 57 percent lack comprehension of even remedial math. We have heard that American students place anywhere from the middle to the bottom of the pack in all three continuing comparative studies of achievement in mathematics, science and general literacy in the advanced industrial nations, while college remediation rates are high and US employers report that today's young people don't have the skills and knowledge needed for the modern workforce. Additionally, vast gaps in academic achievement and graduation rates that separate low-income students and students of color from their more privileged peers continue to plague the American education landscape (These statistics from The Education Trust).
We are told that corporate leaders are best positioned to fix the problems that plague public education and thus have been charged by our elected leaders to transform public education to meet the workforce demands of the 21st century economy, which will translate into solving the achievement gap. Corporations and financial Education, Inc.: