There should be no debate that the key to this nation’s long-term competitiveness in the global economy is providing a highly educated work force. A reading of the unemployment data during this Great Recession should be proof enough of this statement.
Among those with no high-school diploma, unemployment was over 15 percent. For those with a high school diploma and no college it was over 10%. For those with some college or an associate degree, it was over 7.5 percent. And for those with a bachelor’s degree, it was less than 5%. But the unemployment among engineers and computer scientists stayed below 3 percent.
The reasons are obvious. Americans are not making as many of the low-tech items that crowd Wal-Mart shelves. Large numbers of items now bear the Made in China label. Even though some high-tech manufacturing has moved off shore, much of the design work remains here, at least for now.
If this doesn’t give both sides in the budget wars in Madison something to pause and think about, then let me pile on a little more.
There is a gap between our nation’s students in math and science literacy and many of our economic competitors in the world. Literacy in math and science will drive how well our country will compete in the future.
As a nation we have never graduated enough scientists and engineers. In the past we have attracted science and engineering graduates from all over the world. Now China, India and Europe are providing more opportunities for these graduates to seek their fortunes in their home countries.
The countries that have better math and science test scores are producing large numbers of engineers and so the long-term outlook for US competitiveness is not guaranteed. There is some debate as to the quality of Chinese and Indian engineering graduates but in my experience they are excellent.
The problem with the budget battles in Madison in the light of the global economy is that somehow teachers and their union have become the center of the controversy. The fiscal hawks see public employees’ pensions and health care benefits as barriers to fixing the huge deficit facing the state and have attacked unions as essential to gaining fiscal sanity. Teachers and the teachers’ unions in particular have been vilified in the war of words. Public employees including teachers have reacted angrily. It is obvious the state has been severely polarized in this process.
Many of the countries that produce students with greater science and math literacy than ours, like Japan and Korea, have cultures that highly value education and in which the teacher is highly respected and well compensated compared with other professionals. We do not have those basic cultural attitudes. Teacher unions were born out of a lack of respect for the profession and low pay. Before the unions there were few men in the profession because a person could not support a family on a teacher’s salary. Male teachers with families had to have a summer job, usually low paying and manual, and looked for extra work at every opportunity. This along with long hours of prep and paper correction in the evenings made teaching a less than desirable profession for many.
There is no doubt that there are problems with what the unions have become and benefits need to be brought into line but given the lack of a cultural respect for quality education, teacher unions historically drove improvements not just in pay and benefits but in the quality of education.
The problem Wisconsin faces is how to get back to the mode of working together with teachers to improve our education system, especially in the areas of math and science. The confrontation that has been waged seems to have put us a long way from achieving that goal and both sides need to accept some of the blame for that.
Why is education one of the first places we attack instead of the last when there are budget problems? Where does a child’s ability to compete globally fall in the list of priorities that includes building new highways?
Joseph Geck
Joseph Geck is a semi-retired engineering manager and consultant in cross-cultural team effectiveness in Waukesha.
