When it comes to investing in America's future, business leaders are saying the smart money is on education.
"Education is the whole ball of wax. Capital can go anywhere in the world to buy labor, and there is nothing we can do to change that. It comes down to having the labor that is best educated and has the most skills. That is what is going to attract capital and create jobs," explained Patrick Byrne, chairman and CEO of Overstock.com.
Analysts say we see this every day as certain states attract particular industries. For instance, California's Silicon Valley is well-known for technological innovations. As jobs head to specific areas of the country, wealth tends to follow. This same principle can be applied to the global economy-countries with a capable workforce will attract the most capital and jobs.
Yet the U.S. ranked 15th in reading, 19th in math and 15th in science among the 28 most highly developed nations in 2000, according to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics.
"In the past we've gotten around the shortcomings of our education system by in effect importing brains," explained Steve Forbes, president and CEO of Forbes, Inc. "Look at our graduate schools; an extremely high proportion are students from overseas. We are like a baseball team that has a lousy farm system, but we're able to get the players we need from other teams."
Reversing The Trend
Business leaders have suggested the key to improving America's schools is to introduce a concept that has helped drive the country's private sector for years: Competition.
"It is no accident that our colleges and universities are so good. They compete," said Leo Melamed, chairman emeritus of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. "They are competing for the best students and the best teachers. Unfortunately, that is not true in our elementary and high schools where the minimum standard seems to be sufficient," Melamed said. Melamed and others say that interjecting school choice could help change that.
"With choice you get accountability; schools have to demonstrate they are doing right by the students," Forbes said. "Consumers ultimately want the best product and parents want the best for their children. If they have choice…lo and behold, even government-run schools will get their act together because otherwise they lose students and lose money."
Engaging Corporate America
While the majority of business leaders understand the importance of the free market and the impact competition has in the economy, a much smaller percentage supports school choice. Melamed feels that educating these leaders more on school choice will help to change that.
So how does the school choice movement become a priority?
"The message needs to be clear that we are losing ground in competition to other world economies…if the trend continues, it won't be a happy ending," Melamed said.
Forbes is optimistic that as more business leaders are educated on the issue, support for true education reform will grow and school choice will become the status quo.
"I think people will look back and wonder what the fuss was all about," he said.
Improving Schools: Getting Down To Business
Area Businesses And Organizations Host 1,552 Philadelphia Schools’ Students For Shadowing Day
I have worked at one business or another, since I turned 16. I worked for both private and nonprofit businesses, for big corporations and small professional firms. I still remember the excitement, as well as the culture shock, of my very first job. Because of my own experience, I made both of my children get part-time jobs as soon as they turned 16. It was not for the money, though they enjoyed that aspect of working. It was for the experience of being a part of the workplace.
While our children are in school, they lead a totally different life than when they graduate and enter the workforce. Whether they enter after they graduate from one of the Philadelphia schools or after college graduation, the culture shock is there. Children, who have worked in non-neighborhood, part-time jobs during their adolescence, have an edge over those who have not. They have been exposed to the expectations that will be placed on them by an employer. They have experienced the “office politics” that even exist at a neighborhood McDonalds®. They not only know what to expect, but they have learned how to live up to those expectations.
The United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania teamed up with 165 other businesses and organizations in January to sponsor Shadowing Day for Philadelphia schools’ ninth graders. Over 1,552 students spent a workday with a mentor at his/her workplace, giving the Philadelphia schools’ students a first-hand experience of the “real world” workplace.
Each Philadelphia schools’ participant was paired with an employee from a host business or organization. The student literally shadowed their mentor for an entire workday to see what they actually do in their job, what expectations they must meet, the interrelationships within that particular workplace, and how the employee handles his workload, coworkers and supervisors. The experience reduces the future culture shock, when these Philadelphia schools’ students enter the workforce.
The United Way campaign for mentors of Philadelphia schools’ teens first began in 1990. They work year round to provide an adult mentor for every adolescent in the Philadelphia schools’ region who needs one. There are well over 100,000 Philadelphia schools’ students, who have the potential of experiencing teen pregnancy and/or violence, as well as so many who live in poverty. The United Way believes a positive adult role model now is more important than ever in the Philadelphia schools’ area. They currently provide mentors for nearly 5,000 youth annually, training hundreds of new mentors and program leaders each year.
Studies prove that youth with a positive, adult role model are more likely to:
• View their educational opportunities in a positive manner, seeking to learn and attend school;
• Have less behavior problems while in school; and
• More likely to see a college education as a possibility.
Alba Martinez, president and CEO of the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, sees mentoring as “essential, because success in school is key to success in life” for these Philadelphia schools’ students.
This year’s shadowing day for the Philadelphia schools’ ninth graders was part of the celebration for the sixth annual National Mentoring Month, which raises awareness of the need and power of mentoring, recruits new mentors, enlists new businesses and organizations into the mentoring program, and recognizes current mentors for their positive impact on their community.