Four Year Olds Affect the Global Economy? Essential Education

How does your education affect your economic situation? Do you find that friends and family members who have higher degrees make more money?

By and large, individuals with more and better education make more money, and economic analysts contend that the same is true on a global scale.

Economists and politicians agree: Americans must be highly educated for the U.S. to remain competitive in the global marketplace. Better educated workers are more mobile and adaptable, learn new skills quickly, and are able to use a wider range of technologies and equipment.

Competition and education

China, with thousands of years of attention to education, continues to invest in its public education system with impressive results - a booming economy. India reportedly doesn’t have enough well-educated people to fill all of the global jobs that are offered to them. As more educated Indians emerge, India will be an even bigger competitor.

Unfortunately, America’s bright bulb of education seems to be dimming, with fewer students going to and finishing college than ten years ago.

One of the primary reasons for the drop in postsecondary education is cost.

The President of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, Patrick M. Callan, explains that tuition has been gong up faster than average incomes, faster than inflation, and faster even than health care.

Further, federal education grants for students, Pell grants, have decreased dramatically. In the 1990s, Pell grants covered 70 percent of a year at a four-year institution. Because of rising costs and federal cutbacks, 2006 Pell grants cover less than half of costs.

On average, a year at a public university costs about 31 percent of a family’s annual income. For those in the bottom 20 percent of the income range, that figure rises to 73 percent.

Not just about higher education

Falling college enrollment and completion rates are also caused by failing primary and secondary education.

Many argue that the quality of public school education has eroded, causing students to be less prepared for and interested in college.

Many argue that lack of funding is the cause, while others cite the quality of teachers, classroom size, and violence in the schools. However teachers’ salaries are not competitive with other professions and many school budgets are voted down by local taxpayers.

For more on this, click here.

Primary education

The Brookings Institution argues that high-quality preschool programs positively affect the U.S. economy.

Brookings and other researchers have found that children who participate in high-quality preschools are more likely to move on to higher education in the future. Early childhood education (0-5) can make up for what parents may not be able to provide.

More specifically, Brookings found that by age 27, individuals who had participated in preschool programs had almost one year more of postsecondary education than their counterparts who had not attended preschool. Further, participants were less likely to get pregnant as teenagers or engage in criminal activity than students who did not enroll in the preschool program.

Different learning styles

Greater attention to students’ different learning styles may also help kids succeed in school.

Authors Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens suggest that gender is a particularly important component to learning. Gurian and Stevens found that most teachers fail to take gender differences into account, causing both boys and girls to learn at a slower rate than they would with a more gender-sensitive education. Gurian and Stevens believe that physiological differences cause girls to be more language-oriented and boys to be more competitive. However, they do not explore the possible link between learned behavior and physiology.

Further, these findings reinforce gender stereotypes about girls and women being more "communicative" and boys and men being more "aggressive." And Gurian and Stevens do not explore whether gender-specific behavior is learned in and reinforced by the education system.

Nevertheless, their point about individual and unique learning styles in children is well taken. For example, some children are visual learners while others are auditory learners. Attention to these and other differences in the elementary classroom could eventually contribute to a more educated workforce and competitive economy.

For more on this, click here.

What do you think?

Under the No Child Left Behind federal law (NCLB), schools are required to test children often. Is the research about how children learn getting attention in your school district? What are your ideas for improving the public school system? Does your local and state school budget support preschool? Go to our blog and tell us.

The NCLB law is up for reauthorization in 2007. Let your representatives know what you think.

Your input matters

Your representatives in Congress DO care what you think. Especially now -- 2006 is an election year and many representatives will be looking to reconnect with their constituents. Let your congressmen and women know what you think! Give your senators a piece of your mind! To get to your reps, click here.

To explore our archive of past Education updates, click here.

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Posted on: 10/18/2006