A Crumbling Foundation: A Nation at Risk

It is hard to fathom that we can fund numerous projects such as the Iraq War and the fight against terrorism, but investing in our future (education) gets short changed and ignored. I know I want the individuals who will be paying into the social security program at the time I am about to retire to have the best education.

"To put it bluntly, American students may not know as much as their counterparts around the Pacific Rim, but our society allows them to make better use of what they do know. The question now is whether this historic advantage will suffice at a time when knowledge of math, science and technology is becoming increasingly critical. Maybe we need both the enabling environment and more rigor in these areas."

"Most troubling now are the numbers on educational attainment. One reason that the American economy was so dominant throughout the 20th century is that we provided more education to more citizens than other industrialized countries. “A Nation at Risk” noted with pride that American schools now graduate 75 percent of our young people from high school."

"That figure has now dropped to less than 70 percent, and the United States, which used to lead the world in sending high school graduates on to higher education, has declined to fifth in the proportion of young adults who participate in higher education and is 16th out of 27 industrialized countries in the proportion who complete college, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education."

[Image via: Laffy4k]