Education

Education

The American Dream is founded on opportunity, and education is the cornerstone of opportunity. We must make quality education of our children a top priority to enable them to compete in the global economy. We must commit to investing in education so that we can continue to create the most productive and innovative workers in the world. Our future depends on it.

Our public education has played an integral part in allowing the United States of America to become the world's sole superpower. Our colleges have been second to none, drawing talent from all over the world to benefit from our institutions.

Today, we face an increasing challenge from overseas. Global trade has allowed many of our economic competitors to take advantage of our high standard of living by opening up low wage factories and farms that undercut our production costs and force our corporations to offshore our jobs. We can not win in the race to the bottom by lowering our wages, but we can compete and win in adding value to our products. However, this will take a true commitment to investing in our education so that we can produce the most productive and innovative workers in the world. Our competition is now educating far more scientists, engineers and business leaders than our universities. One of the most effective things we can do to improve education is make a commitment to low student teacher rations in all our public schools.

On the other hand, under-funded federal educational mandates are sapping our local schools by forcing school districts to commit scarce resources to meet the requirements. In addition, the Administration also favors the use of school vouchers to allow local funds to go to private schools. This further deteriorates the quality of education that can be provided in public schools. Our nation needs high quality education for all students in order for us to be competitive in the world marketplace. We must provide adequate funding for education, stop unfunded federal education mandates, and foster a culture that enhances and values education in our society.

http://www.jerrymcnerney.org/issues/education.asp