During a speaking engagement last month at a work force training symposium, I mentioned the fact that, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics’ most current National Assessment of Educational Progress, 28 percent of U.S. eighth-grade students cannot read. In California, that number is 38 percent; in Washington, D.C., it is 52 percent.
Those statistics were simply too much for one member of the audience, a professional educator who noted that, if one were to exclude certain demographics (i.e., the poor, recent immigrants, etc.), we would find that the quality of education in the United States is actually on the rise.
I have no doubt that statement is true. Goodness knows I’ve heard it repeated often enough. However, let’s think about that those words for a moment.
If, in order for us to feel good about the quality of our educational system - and our future work force - we have to pretend that one in every four 13 year olds doesn’t really exist, then we have a problem that goes much deeper than just underperforming schools. As adults, are we so thin-skinned that we feel compelled to rationalize away our problems rather than confront them? Do we honestly believe that all these teen-agers who can’t read will suddenly become literate when they turn 18?
| With the current trends in reading and math scores, how long will it be before it is "unemployable" workers, rather than scarcity of jobs, that drive the unemployment rate to 10 percent, or even 15 percent? |
Sure, some will but, statistically, most won’t.
Many say that the real roadblock to education is poverty and that the only way to solve the education problem is to solve the poverty problem. While it is unquestionably true that there is a direct correlation between poverty levels and educational achievement, this analysis is, in my opinion, backwards. In this country, the most direct path out of poverty is through education. In reality, if we want to solve the poverty problem, we must first solve the education problem.
While the U.S. economy may have been able to accommodate such a relatively high level of “illiteracy” in the years prior to World War II, what are its consequences for our economy in 2005? What kind of a life will these young people have in this country? What kind of life will Americans in general enjoy in that type of society?
If ever there was a time for business leaders to weigh in on the need to fix our problems in public education, this is it. How much longer do we need to look at these trends before we realize that our future as a nation hangs in the balance?
Sound overly dramatic? Perhaps, but only just a little.
Remember back to the late 1990s, when unemployment rates were in the 2 percent to 3 percent range? All I ever heard back then was employers bemoaning the fact that they were having a hard time finding employees who possessed basic reading skills, or who understood the importance of showing up for work on a regular basis.
Back then it took having the unemployment rate dip well below 5 percent before those characteristics of “unemployability” began to appear in abundance in the labor pool.
With the current trends in reading and math scores, how long will it be before it is "unemployable" workers, rather than scarcity of jobs, that drive the unemployment rate to 10 percent, or even 15 percent? It’s a frightening thought, especially when you consider the fact that other nations, particularly in the Third World, seem to be improving their education levels. And if, in the future, 10 to 15 percent of the American work force is functionally illiterate, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out where those jobs will be headed - overseas.
In an era where the knowledge economy is producing most of the good-paying jobs, how much longer can we continue to pretend that one in every four 13 year olds doesn’t really exist? Not long, I hope.
Means the article is accessible only to our magazine subscribers.
