Guest Editorial:
Needed: Quality Education for All
by Howard Dodson
The crisis in American education in general and black education
in particular is more serious than I thought. Toward the end
of last year, I attended the New York State Education Summit.
More than 600 educators were in attendance, including the Commissioner
of Education, Chancellors of the CUNY and SUNY Systems, superintendents
of the major public school systems in the state, Regents from
the New York State Board of Regents, principals, teachers and
educational reform advocates.
The immediate focus of attention
was on the increasing performance gaps between African Americans
and other minorities and whites in New York States’ K-12 and university education systems. Plenary
speakers presented the most recent statistical findings. They
were not very different from those presented in previous years.
Just widening gaps. The overwhelming majority of those in attendance
were white and all seemed to nod knowingly as these statistics
were rattled off. There were few surprises in their recounting
and the general mood in the hall was that that’s the
way it is and there is little that we can do about it. Blacks
and minority students are not measuring up to the challenges
posed by the old standards, much less the new, and those in
attendance seemed to have run out of alternative strategies
for closing the gap (if they ever had any).
What snapped me into a realization
of the depth of the educational crisis for black Americans
and America as a whole were some of the findings reported
by Kati Haycock of the Washington, D.C.-based education think
tank, The Education Trust. She had looked at the performance
gap that had developed between American education and its
leading competitors in the global education environment.
Whereas the United States had led the world in educational
performance for years, recently it had slipped into the twentieth
place or less in many performance areas. The new emerging
stars are People’s Republic of China
and India, both of whom graduated more than a million more
students from college last year than the United States. In
both countries, their higher educational programs are dwarfing
U.S. productivity. China, for instance graduated over 300,000
engineers last year. And India, graduated over 150,000. The
U.S. output was a mere 75,000 from all of its colleges and
universities. This is just one area where American education
is losing ground in the global market place.
But the crisis is even greater when
looked at in the context of the American national economy
that will exist 40 years from now. According to one source,
at the present rate of performance, a significant percentage
of the American public will not be qualified to fill the
jobs in the American economy in forty years. Whereas a high
school diploma was sufficient for one to enter the American
job market in the 20th century, a bachelor’s
degree or its equivalent will be a minimal prerequisite for
entry into the American job market in the 21st century. The
implications of this fact are both startling and sobering.
The American education system is
set up to offer all students the opportunity to complete
a high school education. Early on, those who are believed
to be college material are selected out and tracked into
college preparatory academic programs. The
rest are tracked to complete their formal academic training
in 12-13 years (K-12). The economic and social realities of
the 21st century require that all students entering the first
grade be prepared to pursue at least 16 years of academic training
leading at a minimum to a bachelor’s degree. This is
required if graduates are to find work in the new economy. It’s
also required if America is going to be competitive in the
global political economy. I repeat, ALL American students must
pursue undergraduate degrees if they are to be successful,
and the American educational system must be retooled to deliver
such opportunities if America is to remain competitive. This
means that the Black and other minority students who are being
failed by the current system are in even greater jeopardy. But
so are the rest of America’s children who are not pursuing
college degrees today.#
Howard Dodson is the Director of the Schomburg Center
for Research in Black Culture in NY.
