America’s young workers are no longer the most educated in the world. In fact, they’ve fallen all the way to ninth among industrial nations.
That’s troubling on many fronts, coming as more and more U.S. workers are being forced to compete for jobs in a worldwide economy that no longer knows boundaries.
For years, American companies have been outsourcing jobs. (Why pay a Nebraska worker $20 an hour to answer phones when you could pay someone $5 in Bangalore?) But if education in the U.S. isn’t overhauled soon, more jobs will be outsourced out of necessity as employers find an inadequate labor pool stateside.
Colorado has among the worst records in the country when it comes to sending its kids to college, and will lose its competitive edge if it doesn’t improve its public education.
The U.S. is now ninth among industrial nations in the share of its 25- to 34-year-old population with at least a high school degree. We’re seventh in the share of people with a college degree, according to the Paris-based Organization for Cooperation and Development.
Twenty years ago, the U.S. ranked No. 1 in both categories.
This drop has occurred even though the amount of money spent per student on education in the United States ranks second only to Switzerland. (Colorado, however, ranks about 40th among states in per-pupil spending for K-12, and 48th in state support for higher education.)
Nationwide, test scores have improved steadily in recent years for younger students, but once those students get to high school, achievement tanks. Colorado generally ranked in the middle of the pack when it came to math and reading.
There is gathering momentum to change how high schools operate. In Colorado, where one in four college freshmen needs to take remedial courses – at a cost of $15 million a year – 30 percent of today’s ninth-graders never graduate.
Two studies were released this year calling for massive high school reform. Education experts predict the effort will come first at urban schools, such as in Denver, where expectations aren’t being met.
It’s clear something must be done beyond No Child Left Behind, or our economy will be left behind.
