Our 2008 Agenda - Education and Training

by Tom Donohue

To maintain a competitive business environment in America, we need to have an accountable educational environment. We simply cannot have one without the other.

For the American Dream to thrive, it will require economic prosperity and opportunity for every American--and that requires a quality education that prepares our youth for the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Some 30% of our students fail to graduate from high school in four years-more than 50% for African-American and Hispanic students. Those who do graduate often require remedial education. Many are unprepared for postsecondary education and the modern workforce.

That must change.

We owe it to our children and grandchildren to fully prepare them to compete on the global playing field. To that end, the Chamber has reorganized and expanded its institutional assets that focus on educating and training a superior workforce. We are pursuing federal legislation, engaging in public-private partnerships, and working with partners and allies to achieve reforms in the states.

In 2007, we issued a national report card, Leaders and Laggards, which graded all 50 states on their public school performance. This report card has already spurred reforms in a number of states.

This year, we will work to strengthen and reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act--a critical set of tools to help transform the schools so that all students are academically prepared for the 21st century workforce.

We need an education system that encourages local businesses to offer their expertise to both students and teachers. We're all in this together-and we will succeed or fail based on how well we cooperate with one another to give our children the knowledge and the life skills they need.

We need to change the way we train, pay, and evaluate teachers. Pay for performance should be the rule.

Administrators and principals must have the authority and independence to run effective schools--and they must be held accountable for results. Parents must have the information to judge whether their children are in a superior or failing school and be able to transfer their children to high-performing in-district or charter schools.

We must reject a bureaucratic culture and foster a spirit of innovation in our public schools. Smaller schools, expanded learning time, early enrollment in college-level courses for credit, the expansion of charter schools, and online learning programs can improve our students' prospects for success.

Education does not end upon graduation. In the 21st century economy, workers at all ages will need to be trained and retrained to be productive and successful in the workplace.

Our full agenda for 2008 can be found in our State of American Business Report

Comments

[Cathy]

Education will improve when teachers demand respect as professionals. It is the norm for teachers to have students of special needs in the classroom. Teachers are expected to instruct children with autism, behavior disorders, learning disabilities, etc. with only a few hours a week of sped help. Sped staffs have enormous caseloads and can give limited help to individual children. Our educational system needs HELP. Teachers are wary of asking for help because it makes them look inadequate. In addition, parents and administrators do not want to be bothered with problems. Everyone is happy when a teacher takes care of her own problems. Therefore, teachers do their best and pass the student on.
Student behavior plays an important part of learning for both the behavior disordered student and their classmates. Hours of classroom, instruction is gone due to behaviors. Again, many parents and administrators do not want to know about student behavior. Respected teachers are those that can handle behaviors in their classroom. The child that comes to school to learn is no longer the norm.
Our Educational System needs parents, teachers, and the community to change education. Stop looking for what a teacher is not doing and focus on her strengths.
Daycare should be a topic for concern in relationship to student achievement.

[heartland wonk]

The School to Work Opportunities Act of 1994 was a good idea with poorly designed legislation. Rather than provide ongoing funding for these valuable vocational programs, it merely provided seed money and expected these programs to become self-sustaining. Guess what? That didn't work. The Act has lapsed and was not renewed. This should be a piece of an economically oriented education agenda.

At a deeper level, educational policymakers and other public and private leaders need to reexamine the "common sense" assertion that College for All is a great idea. It's not. Do your labor force research. A surplus of college grads is on its way, particularly when baby boomers finish retiring.

Vocational education, particularly at the high school level, is heavily stigmatized as being a lower or remdial track. It need not be. Change along this front needs to start with new rhetoric from business leaders and politicians. The Chamber can and should be a leader in a new, more realistic national discussion of vocationalism at all levels of public education.