A Continuum of Necessary Investments for Learning

Business, the U.S. education system's prime consumer, sees a need for schools to think outside the traditional K-12 box.

By Charles Kolb

While preparing to write this essay, I picked up the Oct. 2, 2006, issue of the Financial Times and found, on Page 4, an article with the following headline: “Young U.S. Business Recruits Lack ‘Basic Skills’ in English.” The article reported results from a survey of more than 430 business leaders, conducted by the Conference Board and the Society for Human Resource Management, that reflected a concern that our country might be “losing its competitive edge to economies such as India and China.”

How is it that so many of America’s young people can pass through the K-12 education system and end up incapable of understanding basic English grammar and math? According to the survey, moreover, nearly 30 percent of employers questioned “doubted their college-graduate employees could write a simple business letter.” With all the money our country spends on education, such findings suggest that we are making poor investments and need to rethink the whole endeavor.

As we continue to determine how best to handle the economic and human challenges of globalization, we should recall that the country’s greatest strength is its people. The American education system—at every level and through every phase of development, from the early years through college and other postsecondary learning—needs to be reconsidered to determine how we can most effectively use our resources to enhance the learning and capabilities of our young people. Merely thinking we are great or competent is not enough—and is irrelevant, if the facts and...