A brain drain and brain waste that threatens to relegate
America to an intellectual backwater
Without a world class educational system, a nation has little
hope of developing citizens who are literate and capable of
world class creativity and innovation. Perhaps the gravest
short-term threat to America's ability to foster creativity
is the state of its education system - and the related levels
of adult literacy. We're never going to sustain a creative
America is our educational system is turning tens of millions
of functional illiterates who can't solve basic problems and
whose innate curiosity and ability to think critically has
been snuffed out.
The cover of the April 2005 issue of Chief
Executive magazine shows a child sitting in a classroom
with a dunce cap on emblazoned with a huge F. The headline
asks "Your Future Work Force?" It's a sobering image. The
cover story, "Fixing
America's Future," is subtitled "To stave off a U.S. workforce
crisis, CEOs are getting more involved in improving the nation's
schools." Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and the
world's richest man, is quoted as saying "When I compare our
high schools with what I see when I'm traveling abroad, I
am terrified for our work force of tomorrow." The article
had a chart ranking students from around the world on a number
of subjects. The United States isn't in the top ten in any
of the categories.
We're 28th in Mathematics. 18th in Reading. 22nd in Science.
29th in Problem Solving. If Bill is terrified, then maybe
the rest of us should pay attention. The magazine
editorializes with this statement, "The State of America's
K-12 school system is reminiscent of the steel industry while
in its long decline -- every player fought to defend its interests,
but in the final analysis, the industry failed, at least in
its original form." This magazine is aimed at the people (mostly
men) who run and own America's businesses. Without a educated
workforce, we certainly can't expect to keep up with other
countries for whom public education is a much higher national
priority, education is a much more valued activity, and where
students desire to learn seems to be outpacing ours.[7]
The Educational
Testing Service, the wonderful organization that brings
us the SATs every year, published a report in February, 2005
- "One-Third
of a Nation: Rising Dropout Rates and Declining Opportunities."
This report documents the shocking finding that nationally,
our high school completion rate dropped from high of 77.1
% in 1969 to 69.9 % in 2000.[8]
That means that one third of the students who start
ninth grade DO NOT MAKE IT TO 12th GRADE. Worse, half of the
students who do manage to graduate are not really ready to
compete in the new global economy and succeed in the type
of workplace that America's businesses require. What are
the consequences of a failing public education system? One
outcome is the deplorable rate of adult literacy in America.
The
National Adult Literacy Survey conducted by the Department
of Education was last completed in 1992 (an updated version
based on 2003 data should be published in the fall of 2005).
"The NALS found a total of 21-23 percent -- or 40-44 million
-- of the 191 million American adults (defined as age 16 or
older) at Level 1, the lowest literacy level. Although many
Level 1 adults could perform many tasks involving simple texts
and documents, all adults scoring at Level 1 displayed difficulty
using certain reading, writing, and computational skills considered
necessary for functioning in everyday life."
In 1992 something like 44 million U.S. adults couldn't fill
out a form, do any kind of research, total a bill or locate
themselves on a map. In my own state of Illinois, 20%
of adults are at Level 1. Not exactly a prescription for
success in a world driven by brain power.[9]
And although comparisons with other countries are trick,
what has been measured also shows America on the downward
slide. In May of 2005 the National
Center for Educational Statistics released highlights
from the 2003 International
Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey (ALL). This study
compared America to Bermuda, Canada, Italy, Norway, and Switzerland
with respect to how well people 16- to 65 did with respect
to literacy and numeracy skills. We're at the bottom of this
group - outscoring only Italy.
In an
editorial in the April 4, 2005 issue of U.S. News & World
Report entitled "Will America Slip From No. 1?", David
Gergen added his voice to the growing alarm over the state
of American education. He cites a study reporting that only
one-third of the students who start high school finish ready
for college, work, and citizenship. "Our competitors, meanwhile,
are growing stronger. On a list of 20 developed nations, America
now ranks 16th in high school graduation rates and 14th in
college graduation rates. But wait, it gets worse. That list
of 20 doesn't even include India and China because they're
officially considered 'developing' countries. Yet everyone
in American technology knows that India and China are rapidly
becoming our most serious competitors...[and] that in 2001
India graduated a million more students from college than
the United States did, while China has six times as many university
students majoring in engineering."
Gergen,
has an impressive resume. He served in the White House as
an adviser to four presidents: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford,
Ronald Reagan, and most recently for Bill Clinton as counselor
to the president and then as special adviser to the president
and the secretary of state. He concludes by saying that we
should be more than alarmed, "we should be ashamed" and calls
on leaders of academia and business to "rally Washington and
the country to a revolutionary overhaul of public education.
In our founding years, Americans were among the most literate
people on Earth, and that has put us on an upward path. The
education of our young has always been a key to our greatness.
Will we now rescue the next generation or condemn it to second
place?"
So it's time to re-examine our national spending priorities
and how we're delivering education and literacy services to
our citizens. These delivery systems seem to be failing us
and we're falling further and further behind other nations.
And
there's more than one kind of illiteracy. As I write this
section (late in 2005), the
American Bar Association released a report
on the civic literacy of American adults. I would say,
as a nation, we'd get a D in Civics. A few of the pathetic
findings: - Only 55% of Americans can correctly identify the
three branches of government - Only 48% can correctly identify
the meaning of the concept of separation of powers - Only
48% correctly identified the role of the judiciary in the
federal government
The Council
on Competitiveness is a body created in 1986 when two-dozen
industrial, university, and labor leaders joined together
to found a forum for elevating national competitiveness to
the forefront of national consciousness. Their website
maintains a wonderful array of resources on the subject of
"How are we doing versus the rest of the world?" The answer
is - "Not so good."[10]
We're seriously lagging on many fronts, but one set of trends
jumps out as a cause for concern. Inside the U.S. we still
have barriers to achievement. African-American and Latinos
are not achieving college degrees and advanced degrees in
anything like the percentage of Whites or Asians. In addition,
women and minorities are severely under-represented in the
sciences and engineering fields. If you're African-American
or Latino or a woman you may need help to get a college degree
and entrance into the science and engineering fields. It's
becoming increasingly difficult for these groups to get college
degrees and advanced degrees in the sciences.
|
If you come from a low-income family, expect to spend over
60% of that income to go to college. Looking at 25- to 29-year
olds, Blacks and Hispanics are far less likely to have a Bachelor's
Degree or higher - by huge margins. 50% less likely for Blacks
and 66% less likely for Hispanics. Finally, white males comprise
almost 70% of the science and engineering workforce. White
females about 15% - while they represent about 35% of the
total workforce. The numbers for Blacks and Hispanics in the
science and engineering workforce are so negligible that the
graphic representations look like small blips. So with all
the talk about America being the land of opportunity, we need
to keep reminding ourselves that it certainly is the land
of educational opportunity for white men coming from high-income
families. What about the rest of America? Whose job is it
to close these gaps? Should these divisions be permitted to
grow?
This state of affairs is making an impact on America's international
competitive position. A May 3, 2004 New York Times article
headlined "U.S.
is Losing Its Dominance in the Sciences," laid out the
situation. "The United States has started to lose its worldwide
dominance in critical areas of science and innovation...The
reasons behind this shift are (1) European and Asian governments
have made research spending in certain areas such as medicine
and high-particle physics a national priority, (2) globalization
has lifted standards of living and education and hence spread
out the body of people capable of breakthrough research, (3)
America's government funded research is unduly weighted with
military-based projects, accounting for more than 50% of the
total ($66 billion out of $126 billion for 2004),and (4) a
reverse brain drain is under way where "vast ranks of bright
foreigners" are leaving the U.S. after getting their advanced
degrees. "These declines are important, analysts say, because
new scientific knowledge is an engine of the American economy
and technical innovation, its influence in everything from
potent drugs to fast computer chips."
No less an august publication than Foreign
Affairs weighed in with the December 2004 article, "Is
America Losing Its Edge?" China
scholar Adam Segal said, "The real test for the United
States' future will be whether it can maintain and improve
its environment for innovation. For the last 30 years, U.S.
companies have led in the invention of new products while
Asian firms have played a secondary role. lowering costs to
manufacture U.S. inventions. But Asian firms have begun to
challenge that division of labor and are no longer content
to simply follow."
He concludes with "The United States must actively engage
with new centers of innovation and prepare itself to integrate
rapidly and build on new ideas emerging from China, India,
and South Korea. Above all, it must not assume that future
innovation will occur automatically. Only through renewed
attention to science funding, educational reform, the health
of labor and capital markets, and the vitality of the business
environment can the United States maintain its edge -- and
the most innovative economy in the world."[11]
So we have a new argument for creativity as a matter of national
economic security. If we don't pay attention to creativity
as a national value and national priority, we'll end up being
owned by a Chinese-Indian consortium and our workforce of
the future doomed to taking orders for someone else's business.
Seen in this light, creativity acceleration becomes the
provenance of non-obvious factors such as our immigration
policies.
Fareed
Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, a columnist
for the national edition of Newsweek, Newsweek International
and, often, The Washington Post, and the author of
The
Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad,
a book on global political trends. In a Newsweek column from
November 29, 2004 headlined "Rejecting
the Next Bill Gates," he writes "U.S. visa procedures
have become far too cumbersome, and bureaucrats are downing
down far more applications than ever before, One crucial result
is the dramatic decline of foreign students in the U.S. --
the first shift downward in 30 years...The single most deadly
effect of this trend is is the erosion of American capacity
in science and technology...The dirty secret about our scientific
edge is that it's largely produced by foreigners and immigrants.
Americans don't do science...Every visa officer today lives
in fear that he will let in the next Muhammad Atta. As a result,
he is probably keeping out the next Bill Gates."
There are a few recurring themes from the many reports and
editorials I've read to prepare this book.
There's the theme of "We're still Number One - For Now."
There's the theme of "The Other Guys (Europe, China, Korea,
etc) are Very Smart and Getting Smarter" and the theme of
"How Stupid Are Americans Anyway and What's Holding Them Back?"
Is this a bad state of affairs? Who says America has to
be Number One in education, creativity, or any measure that
nations deem important? I'm not arguing that America needs
to be Number One in all things - or that only Americans need
to be as creative as they can possibly be. It would be a better
world is ALL people, everywhere, could be as creative and
inventive as they possibly could be. Obviously there's a strong
economic argument for America to ramp up its creativity engine
as many of the authorities cited here affirm. We live in a
competitive environment and it would be prudent to continue
to develop all our intellectual capital in order to create
new wealth for more Americans. How we use our creative capitol
and the innovations that spring from our collective creativity
are political decisions that will be made by our civic and
business leaders. This is another compelling reason for creative
professionals to seek leadership positions in commerce and
government.
There are any number of calls to action. We are called on
to spend more on basic scientific research that's NOT connected
to the military. We are challenged to be more open and nimble
to new ideas that don't originate here. We are warned not
to shut the doors to the American experience - open doors
that welcomed all my grandparents (and probably yours). We
are shamed with the huge numbers of Americans who are not
receiving basic education and who are being shut out from
college and the sciences.
But who will heed these calls for action and act? Isn't
it time for America's creative professionals and people who
value creativity to step up and lead us to a more creative
and hence more democratic and more prosperous future?
"All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should
have an equal opportunity to develop our talent." -- John
F. Kennedy
