Holt Think: Ed, Creativity, Tech, Administration

Starving the Future

Food for thought this political season. When you are looking at candidates, consider which one is more likely to expand education for all students, not retract education. Which candidate is more likely to be for the students long term needs of the country and the students and not the immediate gains of political interests and corporations. 

From the article:

If you compare investments made in education by the United States with initiatives in China and India, Americans have reason to be afraid, very afraid.

This should make it crystal clear to every American that we don’t have any time — or students — to waste. Every child in this country must be equipped to perform. The country’s future financial stability depends on it.

As if to underscore that point, the Center for American Progress pointed out that “between 2000 and 2008, China graduated 1.14 million people in the STEM, or Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, subjects; the United States graduated 496,000.”

But instead of dramatically upping our investment in our children’s education so that they’ll be able to compete in a future that has more educated foreign job seekers, we seem to be moving in the opposite direction. A White House report issued last Saturday noted that:

“Since the end of the recession in June 2009, the economy lost over 300,000 local education jobs. The loss of education jobs stands in stark contrast to every other recovery in recent years, under Republican and Democratic administrations.”

Not only is our education system being starved of investment, but many of our children are literally too hungry to learn.