Building a Strong Education Agenda
America’s interest in being globally competitive in the challenging years ahead—and having a socially just economy and society—depends on developing a rock solid educational agenda. But, realistically, whether an agenda that strengthens American education can be promoted and implemented is an open question. Many governors and state and federal legislators appreciate the importance of education. But despite worries about college costs, education as a central political issue in the presidential campaign is trumped by the currently faltering economy and other pressing issues.
Nevertheless, Americans do care about education. If we are
to be successful, then those who believe that supporting an education agenda is essential to America’s well-being have an obligation to promote it. For such an agenda to succeed, it will require some essential building blocks. One such building block—the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education and Science (COMPETES) Act of 2007—is premised on the fact that America faces a major challenge in slipping behind in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This was a theme of the report of the National Academies in 2005, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, which recommended a major federal investment in education and research to promote American competitiveness and innovation. Top business leaders endorsed this report, and in his 2006 State of the Union address, President Bush announced the American Competitiveness Initiative, which led to competitiveness bills being introduced in the House and the Senate. Last year Congress passed and the president signed the America COMPETES Act to promote excellence in technology, engineering and the sciences. It wonderfully authorized $11.2 billion for a variety of new programs in these areas, as well as significant increases for the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.
That is the theory, not the practice. Authorizations, while a barometer of emerging policy directions, are not real dollar appropriations. When last fall Congress sent an appropriations bill to the president that actually funded the programs in the authorization legislation, the president vetoed it. Congressional attempts to override the veto failed. The outcome was a slimmed-down budget bill for the current fiscal year that essentially did nothing for the America COMPETES Act and maintained status quo funding for most education and research initiatives. The need behind the America COMPETES Act remains, but is now deferred. We may be able to revisit this important legislation at some time in 2009.
The second building block begins with dismantling the obstacles
to making education a centerpiece issue for policymakers and the federal and state governments. These obstacles can be overcome with a clear understanding of the facts limiting America’s educational strength and thoughtful plans on how to breach the barriers. Large federal investments in research and technology in the 1960s made the United States one of the world’s most prosperous nations. Today, the United States faces a new world of tough economic challenges. A good high school education is valuable but insufficient in a world in which 90 percent of the fastest-growing jobs require postsecondary education or training. Meanwhile, emerging economic powers such as China and India are expanding their education systems and their increasingly competitive economies by investing heavily in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
In this challenging new world, hundreds of thousands of Americans will not enter a two- or four-year college, though
they are fully prepared to do so. Why, and who are they? They are overwhelmingly persons of low or moderate income. Many cannot afford further education, have been poorly prepared, have low expectations or have received bad or confusing information about how to get into a college and what it could mean for their lives. Even worse, there are large numbers of young people, primarily though not exclusively minority males, who never even complete a high school education.
These disturbing facts persuaded the College Board, working through a broad-based task force of knowledgeable educators,
to prepare an open letter to the leaders of American education.
It highlights the plight of low-income students and proposes a specific compact and action plan for all sectors and leaders in American education. The CollegeKeys Compact™ challenges educators to redouble their efforts to help students from low-income backgrounds earn college degrees. The most startling statistic the report documents is this: At every level of achievement in high school, upper-income students are far more likely to go to college and have successful and productive lives than their low-income counterparts. Low-income students, even those who have done exceptionally well in high school, are far less likely to attend a community or four-year college. The grim economic realities are compounded by the barriers cited above and the nonalignment of high school graduation requirements with requirements for access to and success within college.
This report has a powerful action plan—a compact—that will
enlist all sectors of education in committing to specific steps to change the unacceptable realities by 2025. It correctly insists that complete opportunity for access—equity—is not in conflict with high standards and excellence. Correcting this educational and economic wastage of human talents and resources involves much more than rhetoric. But its implementation requires defining and understanding the problem and articulating the principles—the road map—America’s education leaders and policymakers must embrace.
We must all understand that to compete in a globalized world, college access must be a reality for all. We need to stop wasting human talent and aspirations. If we take the steps outlined in the America Competes Act and the CollegeKeys Compact, America will have the strong educational foundation required for its success in the Twenty First Century.
  
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