Case For Action
Public education "has led to a country that's been very innovative and created lots of jobs," Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates told Business Week magazine in June 2006. "Yet when you look at it, you think the broad excellence we need and the changes we need aren't necessarily going to happen" without intervention from the private sector.
The rapidly-changing, information- and technology-based workplace of the 21st century requires a well-educated, highly-skilled workforce. Yet too many young people lack basic and advanced skills. One study estimates that companies and colleges spend upwards of $17 billion per year to train recent graduates in the basic skills they should have gained in school and another study estimates that America loses $2.3 billion each year due to loss of productivity from high school graduates who require remediation in reading and math in college and the workplace. International assessments show that American students are falling farther behind their counterparts in developing countries. And America faces a significant shortage of innovation workers – those college graduates with strong technical skills and creative minds.
Put simply, America’s public schools have not kept pace. States and school districts are not challenging all high school students to learn the skills and knowledge that will enable them to succeed in technical training, college or careers. It's critical that businesses of all sizes and industries step up to help bring public schools up to speed in the 21st century.
This Web site can help. Download fact sheets with the benefits to business of investing in Texas and America’s public schools.
Facts:
The Texas Scholars home page includes education facts that highlight the emerging problems facing Texas and America's schools and workforce in the new global knowledge-based economy.
• 30 percent of high school students – and nearly 50 percent of black and Latino students – fail to earn a diploma within four years. The Manhattan Institute, 2006
• The U.S. loses $2.3 billion a year in lost productivity from high school graduates who require remediation in reading and math in college and the workplace. The Alliance for Excellent Education, 2006
• The U.S. spends over $12,000 per public school student each year – twice the international average – and yet only produces a high school graduation rate of 70%. Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2006
• Only fourteen states require all high school students to complete a high school curriculum that will prepare all graduates for work and college. Achieve, Inc., 2007
• 58% of high school graduates say high school did not fully prepare them for work. Achieve, Inc., 2005
• Over 80% of employers say they experience difficulties hiring qualified workers; only half are satisfied with the skills of their current employees. National Association of Manufacturers, 2005
• Among fifteen year olds in 2003, 23 out of 38 competitor countries outscored the U.S. on math literacy and 25 countries outscored the U.S. on problem solving. Program of International Student Assessment (PISA), 2003
• Only 20% of 12th-graders scored at or above proficient on the National Assessment of Educational Progress science test in 2005. National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), 2005
• In the next five years, demand for scientists and engineers will increase at least 70% faster than the overall growth rate for all occupations in the U.S. National Science Foundation, Science & Engineering Indicators, 2006
• About 60,000 students earn bachelor's degrees in engineering in the U.S. and South Korea each year, even though South Korea's population is only one-sixth the size of the U.S. population. National Science Foundation, Science & Engineering Indicators, 2006; CIA World Factbook, 2006