Education, Politics, and a Flat World
By State Senator Dave Lewis
A few years ago I was reading a Pat Williams column in the paper and he said one of the most alarming things that I had ever heard. He says many alarming things but this one really stuck with me. He said that this could, be the first generation of the American middle class that could not be certain that their children would do better than their parents had. I kept thinking about this as I watched the changes in the world over the past few years.
A recent study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education just suggested that personal income in the United States will drop over the next fifteen years if we do not increase the educational level of our population. The projected decline in income coincides with the growth of the knowledge based economy and competition with the rest of the world.
It really struck home when I read an article in this month’s Economist Magazine that listed the twenty counties in the United States with the lowest wages and salaries in 2003. Eight out of ten of the lowest wage counties in the nation are in Montana. Three of those counties are in the Senate District that I represent. Those are Meagher, Wheatland and Golden Valley with Meagher, (White Sulphur Springs), being the lowest in the nation. Even accounting for the fact that these are agriculture counties, with many self employed farmers and ranchers, the numbers are alarming
I also just finished reading The World is Flat by Tom Friedman. He examines what is happening as the internet changes business and economies across the world. He also remarked on the danger to our political system if the middle class begins to realize that the future for their children is going to be very challenging as we compete with China and India and other low wage highly educated countries. He portrays it as a crisis and I agree.
What all of this means to me is that we have to do something dramatic to increase the educational level of our work force if we are to be able to compete. We just finished a special legislative session in which we appropriated a 5% increase in spending for public schools and debated how many teachers can stand on the head of a pin. We never addressed the big question of what kind of an educational system will we need to compete in the modern world. It would have been a more productive debate if we had established a goal, such as assuring that we have a well trained and productive work force. That focus would allow us to expand funding for education in the context of being competitive in the future. We could set benchmarks to make sure we were getting our money’s worth. It would be easier for the public to support those increases if they understood the context and the urgency of the challenge.
Properly funding K-12 education is just part of the task. What if Montana established a program to assure that every qualified citizen of the state could have easier access to up to two years of additional education after they have concluded high school or obtained a GED. This could be a technical or first two year of college type of training. It could be obtained on campus or over the inter net as long as it was provided by a Montana institution of higher education. Adequate progress would have to be proven for the person to continue to receive assistance, and that would be verified prior to payment. John Mercer has recently proposed lowering College Tuition by 10%. Why not focus on the first two years and lower tuition by a larger amount to get students in to the system? Maybe there is a better way to do it but I think that we are both on the same track.
Assistance could be provided by direct payment or through a tax credit to the recipient or employer who pays the bills. The amounts could be needs based and vary per student. The use of tax credits is more efficient and could be encouraged by giving larger breaks. Priorities would have to be set in order to accomplish this but we have the ability to do that in the Legislature. Hard choices have to be made to protect our future.
What an economic boon it would be to provide potential employers with well trained employees and the ability to get added training for their work force. A well trained work force will earn more and help to provide the resources needed to help with the support of our aging population as well. We need a unified K-16 education system designed to turn out people educated to earn a living in a competitive world.
We need to do something dramatic to retain our ability to compete with the rest of the world. A well trained work force is our ace in the hole. We cannot afford to miss the opportunity to begin creating that asset.
Senator Dave Lewis of Helena represents Senate District 42. Mr. Lewis served as the state budget director for three Montana governor's: Governor Schwinden (D), Govenor Stephens (R), and Governor Racicot (R).
A few years ago I was reading a Pat Williams column in the paper and he said one of the most alarming things that I had ever heard. He says many alarming things but this one really stuck with me. He said that this could, be the first generation of the American middle class that could not be certain that their children would do better than their parents had. I kept thinking about this as I watched the changes in the world over the past few years.
A recent study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education just suggested that personal income in the United States will drop over the next fifteen years if we do not increase the educational level of our population. The projected decline in income coincides with the growth of the knowledge based economy and competition with the rest of the world.
It really struck home when I read an article in this month’s Economist Magazine that listed the twenty counties in the United States with the lowest wages and salaries in 2003. Eight out of ten of the lowest wage counties in the nation are in Montana. Three of those counties are in the Senate District that I represent. Those are Meagher, Wheatland and Golden Valley with Meagher, (White Sulphur Springs), being the lowest in the nation. Even accounting for the fact that these are agriculture counties, with many self employed farmers and ranchers, the numbers are alarming
I also just finished reading The World is Flat by Tom Friedman. He examines what is happening as the internet changes business and economies across the world. He also remarked on the danger to our political system if the middle class begins to realize that the future for their children is going to be very challenging as we compete with China and India and other low wage highly educated countries. He portrays it as a crisis and I agree.
What all of this means to me is that we have to do something dramatic to increase the educational level of our work force if we are to be able to compete. We just finished a special legislative session in which we appropriated a 5% increase in spending for public schools and debated how many teachers can stand on the head of a pin. We never addressed the big question of what kind of an educational system will we need to compete in the modern world. It would have been a more productive debate if we had established a goal, such as assuring that we have a well trained and productive work force. That focus would allow us to expand funding for education in the context of being competitive in the future. We could set benchmarks to make sure we were getting our money’s worth. It would be easier for the public to support those increases if they understood the context and the urgency of the challenge.
Properly funding K-12 education is just part of the task. What if Montana established a program to assure that every qualified citizen of the state could have easier access to up to two years of additional education after they have concluded high school or obtained a GED. This could be a technical or first two year of college type of training. It could be obtained on campus or over the inter net as long as it was provided by a Montana institution of higher education. Adequate progress would have to be proven for the person to continue to receive assistance, and that would be verified prior to payment. John Mercer has recently proposed lowering College Tuition by 10%. Why not focus on the first two years and lower tuition by a larger amount to get students in to the system? Maybe there is a better way to do it but I think that we are both on the same track.
Assistance could be provided by direct payment or through a tax credit to the recipient or employer who pays the bills. The amounts could be needs based and vary per student. The use of tax credits is more efficient and could be encouraged by giving larger breaks. Priorities would have to be set in order to accomplish this but we have the ability to do that in the Legislature. Hard choices have to be made to protect our future.
What an economic boon it would be to provide potential employers with well trained employees and the ability to get added training for their work force. A well trained work force will earn more and help to provide the resources needed to help with the support of our aging population as well. We need a unified K-16 education system designed to turn out people educated to earn a living in a competitive world.
We need to do something dramatic to retain our ability to compete with the rest of the world. A well trained work force is our ace in the hole. We cannot afford to miss the opportunity to begin creating that asset.
Senator Dave Lewis of Helena represents Senate District 42. Mr. Lewis served as the state budget director for three Montana governor's: Governor Schwinden (D), Govenor Stephens (R), and Governor Racicot (R).
posted by Write On Helena! @ 7:25 PM
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