Time Has Come for a New U.S. System for Education and Workforce Readiness

America is losing its place as a world leader in the education and workforce arenas and, unless changes are made soon, we will move farther down the path to decline.

That was the message three guest panelists delivered at the ACT annual meeting October 22–23 in Iowa City. In a discussion moderated by Bob Graham, ACT board member and former U.S. senator from Florida, the panelists addressed the challenges facing the United States in a global economy.

Cheryl King

“One of the biggest problems is that millions of adults in our country aren’t prepared to meet today’s economic demands,” said Cheryl King, president of Kentucky Wesleyan College. “Out of the 30 free-market countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States is the only country where the young adults are less educated than the previous generation.”

King was study director for a report by the National Commission on Adult Literacy, Reach Higher, America: Overcoming Crisis in the U.S. Workforce, the result of a two-year project examining adult education and literacy services in America.

“While there has been significant focus on and debate dedicated to strengthening America’s workforce and developing a more rigorous K–12 education system, we have overlooked an equally pressing crisis among our adult workers,” she said. “Our nation’s prosperity and security are at stake.”

Approximately 88 million Americans ages 18 to 64 face at least one educational barrier:

• 18 million have not completed high school
• 51 million have a high school diploma, but have not completed any college coursework
• 19 million have limited English skills.

Federal adult education, training, and English language programs reach only about three million of these adults each year.

The commission’s report includes two major recommendations:

• Congress should transform the adult education and literacy system into an adult education and workforce skills system with the capacity to effectively serve 20 million adults annually by 2020.
• Congress and state governments should make postsecondary and workforce readiness the new mission of the adult education and workforce skills system.

“Education drives the economy. We can work our way out of the current crisis through better education for all, regardless of age and stage in life,” said King.

Roger Sampson

Roger Sampson, president of the Education Commission of the States, delivered a similar message. Our remediation, graduation, and proficiency rates should incite action, he said. One in three fourth-grade students read below proficiency. Our national high school graduation rate is 68 percent. One in three high school graduates need remediation in college or before entering workforce training programs.

“We need to hit the problems affecting education and the workforce head on,” he said. “We’re capable of producing highly skilled engineers, teachers, doctors, and other professionals, because we know how to provide targeted, individualized instruction. But we don’t always do it very well.”

The demands on the U.S. workforce are changing rapidly. More jobs are requiring a bachelor’s degree. Unskilled jobs that once paid a living wage have become almost nonexistent. “Education beyond high school is becoming a necessity for obtaining a job with a living wage in this country.”

Developing a workforce to be competitive in a global economy is everyone’s concern, he said. “We have a crisis and an opportunity, and the time to act is now.”

J. Noah Brown

Community colleges might offer one solution to the problem. “Community colleges lift the economic hopes of people in this country,” said J. Noah Brown, president and CEO of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). “We know that every dollar of taxpayer money that goes into a community college produces a net return of over three dollars in the community, when you look at the value of training it provides. Community colleges are a response to the challenge of maintaining economic productivity and improving prosperity going forward.”

Community college enrollments tend to balloon during an economic downturn because these schools offer access to efficient and affordable education and training. As the aging population retires and companies lay off workers, community colleges across the country are seeing record enrollments, said Brown. They currently serve more than 12 million students a year.

But an economic crisis often means cutbacks in federal funding for community colleges. “So at a time when our enrollments are going to grow and we can be most useful to the nation in helping to shorten the time and decrease the depth of this economic depression, we’re going to have our resources reduced. We won’t be able to get the job done,” he said.

In collaboration with other organizations, ACCT is attempting to address this challenge by developing a set of voluntary standards intended to help community colleges benchmark their successes and failures and be more accountable to their funding sources. This information is intended to confirm the reasons governments should increase—not reduce—their support for community colleges.

“Our number one challenge is to find a way to put more emphasis on higher achievement,” said Brown. “I think it’s an admirable goal we should keep working toward. We have an opportunity to reverse the crisis in education and develop a workforce that will serve our country into the future.”

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