A Nation at Risk, Take 2

This morning's New York Times carried the following Op Ed recognizing the upcoming 25th anniversary of the report "A Nation at Risk," which raised the first alarms about American public education and is often cited as the catalyst for modern school reform movements.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/opinion/25fiske.html?ex=1366862400&en=93f25ee7b6823d99&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Twenty-five years of hand wringing over the declining quality of American education have done little to reverse the trend. Today, as cited in the article above, less than 70% of our young people graduate from high school (compared to more than 75% 25 years ago); and ranks 16th out of 27 industrialized nation in the percentage of students who COMPLETE college.

This is shameful, and it is hurting our general economy--not just due to a lack of skilled leadership and work force, but perhaps more importantly because of the way declining public education creates a badly-informed electorate. In the last two national elections, large percentages of America's working class--i.e., "red America,"--voted AGAINST their own economic self-interest whenever they voted Republican. The Republican economic agenda of tax cuts for the wealthy and initiatives such as the war in Iraq have caused the staggering burden of national debt to soar--which in turn helps to foster inflation, high fuel prices, and all the other economic woes we currently face. Yet they found a solid base of support amongst working class people: those who have been most directly hurt by these very policies.

A democracy requires a well-informed, questioning electorate. Our nation's founders and many since them knew that an excellent, fully accessible public education system was the key to creating such an electorate. We can't dismiss that knowledge at this late date; and we can't spend another 25 years wringing our hands over how to slowly change our lost public education system. National action is required, and quickly: let's hope that whoever the new resident of the West Wing is has the guts and the wherewithal to do do.