Blog # 9:U.S. Education Reform and National Security

The Task Force Reports that the United States failure to educate its students leaves them unprepared to compete and threatens the country’s ability to thrive in a global economy and maintain its leadership role, finds a new Council on Foreign Relations sponsored Independent Task Force report on U.S. Education Reform and National Security. The Task Force states that the “Educational failure puts the United States future economic prosperity, global position, and physical safety at risk.  The Task Force argues that there “will not be able to keep pace much less lead globally unless it moves to fix the problems it has allowed to fester for too long. The reports note that the U.S. invests more on k-12 public education than other developed countries and that their students aren’t prepared to compete with global peers. The 2009 PISA results show an international assessment that measures the performance of 15yr olds in reading, math, and science every 3 years and the U.S. students ranks 14^th in reading, 25^th in math, and 17^th in science compared to students in other industrialized countries. The report states with the lack of preparedness poses a threat on 5 national security fronts such as: economic growth and competitiveness, physical safety, intellectual property, U.S. global awareness, and U.S.  Unity and cohesion. It also states the too many young people aren’t employable in this high skilled global economy and too many aren’t qualified to join the military because of criminal records, inadequate education or unfitness. The report also states that human capital will determine power in the current century, and the failure to produce that capital will undermine America’s security. The Task Force proposes three policy recommendations to fix this problem which are: implement educational expectations and assessments in subjects that will protect national security, make structural changes to provide students with good choices and launch a national security readiness audit to hold schools and policymakers accountable for results and to raise public awareness.

This is a global problem because its shows how the U.S. invests more in k-12 education than other countries, but the students aren’t scoring well versus their global peers. And this lack of preparedness poses a threat on 5 national securities. I agree with the Task Force when they state how they believe that its message and recommendations can reshape education in the U.S. and put this country on track to be an educational, economic, military, and diplomatic global leader. This will get the U.S. education back on the right track for better success for our children. We need to work towards bettering our education system.

http://www.cfr.org/united-states/us-education-reform-national-security/p27618