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Erasing the Education Deficit
By William E. Kirwan
Ask anyone about the nation’s trade deficit or
budget deficit and you will hear words of concern, if not outright
alarm. Ironically, there is a deficit potentially more damaging to our
nation’s well-being that many people either do not recognize or
choose to ignore. It is our nation’s “education
deficit.”
According to the National Center for Education
Statistics, based on current participation and completion rates, for
every 100 eighth graders in the United States today, just 18 will
receive an associate or a bachelor’s degree in the next 10 years.
In a recent speech, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings noted
that the United States now ranks fifth among the industrialized nations
in high school completion rates and seventh in college graduation
rates.
Our nation’s higher education deficit is not just
in the total number of degree earners, but also in the fields that are
vital to a science- and technology-driven economy. Again, the numbers
tell an alarming story. In 2000, Asian universities produced 1.2 million
science and engineering graduates. European universities produced
850,000. The United States produced 500,000.2 In an economy dependent
upon a skilled, creative, and innovative workforce, these
trends—if left unchecked—threaten our nation’s global
competitiveness in the decades ahead. . . .
Excerpted from the winter 2006 issue of The Presidency. To
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