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America’s Public Education Tradition
I am a true baby boomer born in April 1946 just ten months after my father returned from Europe where he been wounded.
My father never completed high school while my mother managed to earn a high school diploma. Despite their minimal education, both of my parents believed in the importance of education. My brother and I were raised knowing that we were expected to attend college.
We were not rich, but we knew that college was in the budget. As a result, both my brother and I earned BS degrees in physics. I also eventually earned two Masters degrees and worked as an engineer in the semiconductor industry for forty years. My brother earned a Ph.D. in high-energy particle physics and today works at a National Accelerator Lab and teaches on the side.
I tell you our story because I want to point out that parents are a key factor to a good education.
My parents realized, like many Americans before us, the importance of education for the individual and for the country. From our earliest days, Americans have supported public education realizing its value to the country as a whole not just the individual.
They realized the importance of an educated citizenry for a successful democratic society. They also realized if we are to compete economically on the world stage, the nation needs an educated work force.
Our high standard of living and higher wages make it difficult to compete globally, unless we can out innovate and out produce other nations, which requires a better-educated workforce. By better educated, I do not mean just engineers, scientists, or programmers. We need to better educate at all levels from the janitor to CEO. As our world becomes more complex, we need more skills and knowledge to perform even simple tasks.
Unfortunately, the quality of our K-12 education trails many developed countries. We have all heard the results of test scores that show our students trailing far behind in many areas particularly math and science. This is particularly true for minorities and the poor. You might say so what that does not apply to my family, but our economy needs everyone to participate with all their abilities if our economy is to be competitive globally.
We need our schools to work better. Does that mean more money, probably, but more important we need more community involvement.
In Minnesota we have an excellent K-12 system, and the United States has great colleges and universities, drawing so many foreign students. Even our higher education is now in danger as we cut funding to our public colleges and universities, and reduce student aid. We need to make higher education available to our best and brightest not just the wealthiest. Minnesota is now ranked fourth highest in the amount of debt graduating students carry in part because of State budget cuts.
We have the choice of remaining an economic power by educating our population, or we can gradually decline to second rate because we did keep our education system up to par.
Posted in Education | Related Topics: K-12 education Achievement Gap Education Funding