Time to rebuild an education infrastructure

"The education gap between the United States and the rest of the industrialized world is as real as the trade gap between the United States and China.” Strong American Schools' ED in 08 Chairman Roy Romer

“Experts cite strong link between student achievement and economic growth; New poll reveals Americans believe the quality of a country's education system has a big impact on its economic prosperity…” Fox/Newswire

I know I have argued the point for years, but experts have consistently assured me that it was far more important to cut spending on social infrastructure, including education. Not only that, governments the world over have done just that.

My argument, inspired by that great shopkeepers daughter Margaret Thatcher, has been that if you don’t replace stock, at the very least, one day you wake up with empty shelves. More than that stock on the shelves should be continually tuned to customer needs, and you can’t do that if you don’t reinvest.

America is now experiencing an education gap, the shelves are emptying and not being restocked. Since 1998 the US has fallen from equal first to seventh among industrialized countries.

I’m not crowing, Australia and Canada have both allowed education funding to slip over the past few decades. I often felt the downgrading was inspired by a conservative distain for educated thinkers. Obviously educationalist fell behind in arguing the cause and it is an international disgrace that economics faculties totally folded.

The simple fact is, education, libraries and all the mix of skills that come with them simply weren’t seen as valued short term benefits. And short term is all we have been doing for years.