Friday, September 16, 2011

We're into the 4th quarter, and we don't realize there's a game!

Washington is having big arguments about how to put Americans back to work. In the short term, we need to find ways to cut the unemployment rate. Some will argue it can be done by lowering taxes and eliminating regulations. Others want to see more government spending to save teachers and other public employees.

Here's something that no one is willing to talk about: In the long term, none of this matters. We're screwed unless we wake up to what has happened around the world!

America used to have the best education system in the world, and the best-educated workforce. Students from all over the world flocked to attend our universities and, once they had graduated, they stayed in America to lend their newly-acquired skills to our workforce. The opportunities were here, not in China or India.

That was several decades ago. To use a sports metaphor other countries spent a lot of time watching our game films. We sent folks all over the world to help other nations improve their educational systems. Other countries bought into education big time. Improving their educational systems became a matter of national priority. In almost every case, they watched what we were doing, then figured out how to do it better!

In 1963, the economy of Finland was in serious trouble. The Finnish parliament decided that the way to bring prosperity back to Finland was to have an educational system second-to-none in the world. It was a national goal, and everyone recognized its importance. Ignorance became a threat to national security.

Today, the public schools of Finland stand atop the world's educational systems. Did they fire all the "bad" teachers, give lots of standardized tests to make teachers accountable, get rid of teacher unions? No.

They went to work making teaching an attractive occupation. Attractive enough to get students from the top third of their secondary school classes to choose a career in teaching.

There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from the one exam taken at the end of the senior year of high school.

Unions? Almost every Finnish teacher is a union member.

There's lots more to say about the Finnish educational system, but I'll leave that for the coming days.

What's important now is something else that no one is willing to talk about. The structure of the workplace has changed around the world. Those waiting for the return of the good old days where a high school diploma meant a standard of living pretty close to that of a college grad are going to be sorely disappointed.

There are no longer jobs that pay high wages for low skills. What few have yet realized is that high-skill workers are in trouble. 

India has built a system of universities devoted to technology. Entrance to these schools (Indian Institutes of Technology, or IIT's) is by examination. How tough are the exams? Those who don't secure admission to an IIT are more than qualified to enter any of America's prestigious engineering schools, and many do. And then they go home, because opportunities abound there.

An Indian engineer graduating from one of the IIT's expects to start at $7500/year. An equally qualified American engineer would start at $45,000/year. Where would you send your engineering work if you owned a company?

More to come, but that's it for today.

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