Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

Preparing Our Kids for the 21st Century Economy

Throughout our history, public schools have empowered America to fulfill its promise to the next generation. Yet today more than 1.2 million children drop out of high school every year. We now rank 20th among industrialized nations for high school graduation rates, but 40 years ago, we were first. Of our 8th graders, 70 percent can't read at grade level. Only nine out of 100 kids living in poverty will graduate from college.

Our economy is at risk. These outcomes are unsustainable in an economy in which a college degree has become a necessary, though not always sufficient, passport to the middle class. Between 1992 and 2002, we created 6 million new jobs that require a college degree, and lost about half a million jobs that require a less than a high school diploma. Of the 30 fastest growing occupations, 22 will require a college degree between now and 2016.

The zip code you are born in should no longer dictate the quality of education you receive.

While our economy has changed, our schools have remained stuck in models designed deep in the last century or earlier. Our kids are attending schools originally designed to prepare their grandparents for an economy that no longer exists. Every signal in our economy points to the fact that we need to invest in education and produce college graduates. However, the response of our schools, especially for low-income students, is utterly inadequate to meet the demands of the economy.

Our country's competitiveness and our ability to pull ourselves out of this economic crisis depend on fundamental transformation of the public education in this country. We have a unique opportunity to push our schools into the 21st century. Now is not the time for timid reform. We need transformative reforms.

Working together, we can ensure that every child is prepared to succeed in college and in the 21st century economy.

Bennet, a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is a former superintendent of Denver Public Schools and is a member of the extended negotiation table that crafted a bill to fix No Child Left Behind. He has led a group of moderate Senators in pushing for a set of principles to fix No Child Left Behind. Michael is working to increase flexibility for those closest to the classroom, recruit and train effective teachers and school leaders, teach more and test less, end inequality, fix low-performing schools, spur competition and innovation, empower parents and teachers and lead the world in the percentage of college graduates.

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