WASHINGTON – While a strong majority of American voters support funding for education, the country is lagging behind global competitors like China and India in commitment to education, said a study released by the Center for American Progress.
The study, released Tuesday, underscores how America’s global competitiveness is being threatened by a lack of focus on preparing the younger generation for what is an increasingly global market for jobs.
“Businesses have options of where to locate their jobs than ever before,” said Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware, who signed major educational reform initiatives, including adopting common core standards across the state and improving transparency of school evaluations. “Job is going where talent is.”
With an ever-growing global economy, not only do companies compete against each other, but competition for jobs at these companies has also begun, especially in the high-tech industries.
As China continues to produce more STEM subject graduates than the U.S., it is likely that more U.S. technology firms will start recruiting Chinese graduates and even relocate their offices to tap into the rich local talent pool.
Between 2000 and 2008, China graduated 1.14 million people in the STEM subjects while the U.S. graduated 496,000, according to Center for American Progress.
This trend is not confined to just the STEM subjects. By 2030, it is expected that China will have 230 million total college graduates, which is more than the 200 million strong current workforce of the U.S., according to a study by the Center for the Next Generation. In addition, by 2020, India will be graduating four times as many college graduates annually as the U.S.
It’s not all about quantity but quality, too, said Eric Hanushek, a fellow at Hoover Institution of Stanford University, about the educational competition against China and India.
Results from the Program for International Student Assessment, which measures 15-year-olds’ academic capabilities showed that the U.S. ranked 14th and 25th in reading and math, respectively among 34 participating countries.
These mediocre scores compounded by forecast that the country would increasingly have a smaller share of the world’s college graduates puts the status of the U.S. as a global economy leader in jeopardy.
“Not fall apart, but would not be able to keep pace with the economic growth of China and India,” said Hanushek, as he also acknowledges that if the country improves its current education, the outcome may look completely different. “Economic growth depends on human capital, which in turn depends on investment in youth.”
In recent years, one of the categories of education that has received increasing attention is early education and development, which is the enhancement and expansion of preschool education.
Although it has been a topic of national discourse, federal and state governments have struggled to devise a clear plan and implement this education. While the U.S. has staggered, China has already committed to providing 70 percent of its children with three years of preschool, said Matt James, president and CEO of Center for the Next Generation.
“Learning begets learning,” said Hanushek. “Students who do well in sixth grade do well in the ninth grade. That is why it is necessary to start learning early.”