Education is a National Security Issue

What’s the connection between national security, education, and federal tax and budget cuts? Let me explain . . .

Aggressive federal tax and budget cuts under the Bush administration have squeezed State budgets for quality education and school facilities, and the limits on State budgets have, in turn, resulted in pressure to raise local property taxes to make up the difference. At the same time, President Bush’s tax cuts for the rich and budget cuts for social support programs have squeezed middle class homeowners who find it increasingly difficult to build up equity in their homes, send their children to college, and save for a secure retirement. The result is that the same homeowners who are struggling to meet their responsibilities to their families are also being asked to compensate for diminished funding for education.

This is a formula for disaster in the modern world, where the country that falls behind in technology will soon fall behind in power. It is no surprise that with the erosion of our lead in education has come the inevitable erosion of our technological supremacy in the world. And as we fall further and further behind developing countries, we will have more and more reason to fear the countries that have taken the lead. Some of them are non-democratic and repressive, like China; others are relied on heavily by American corporations, like India; and others are antagonistic to the U.S. and actively pursuing nuclear ambitions, like Korea and Iran.

National security demands that we restore the significant cuts in education made by the Bush administration. We need to invest in education not merely because it is the right thing to do, but because if we do not lead the world in education, our national security will be more and more compromised.

To this end, we need to ensure that our talented kids, rich or poor, Black or White, have the best education. That is the bottom line. How can we do this?

First, we need to make education a top priority, recognizing that national security requires young Americans who are well trained in language, culture, history, diplomacy, and, most especially, the sciences.

We need to seek out and cultivate talented American kids, with a special focus on what are known as the STEM subjects – STEM is the acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math. This means that we should conduct aptitude testing at a very young age – not a test to see whether young children have mastered skills, but a test to determine a child’s aptitude for STEM subjects and related disciplines.

Next, we need to put those children with the greatest potential, whether rich or poor, Black or White, into high quality public schools. In New York City, for example, there are magnet schools specially designed to attract the most talented students of their generation – Stuyvesant School, a high school, is one such example. But there should also be magnet schools on the elementary and middle school levels. The government should develop a model to have such schools in every highly populated region of the country.

In addition, for all of our children, the federal government should vigorously pursue initiatives specifically intended to enhance the quality of K-12 education and related education research. Here are my suggestions:

(1) Establish a competitively awarded grant program in the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education, which funds high-quality research on K-12 education.

(2) Establish a new graduate fellowship program to support 500 students per year pursuing Ph.D.’s in science, technology, engineering, and math education.

(3) Provide stipends for college students who tutor K-12 students in STEM and other course work.

(4) Recruit 10,000 science and mathematics teachers each year by awarding four-year college scholarships to undergraduates who commit to majoring in education and teaching in the K-12 grades for a specified period of years.

(5) Increase federal investment in basic research supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Department of Energy (DOE).

(6) Increase federal investment in environmental sciences, basic medical science, and the physical sciences and engineering, so that the new generation of talent can contribute what they’ve learned to assist the United States in retaking the lead in science and technology.

(7) Provide top young scientists and engineers with independent research opportunities and funding to encourage novel thinking and research. We need to continue to establish and build on professional science masters programs that meet specific science and technical workforce needs identified by the federal government, business, and industry.

In sum, we need to make the United States the most attractive setting in which to study and to perform research so that we can develop, recruit, and retain the best and brightest students, scientists, and engineers.

Helping New Jersey Educate our Children

Demographic and economic forces are converging to limit New Jersey’s ability to provide high quality education to its children and to protect, much less expand, access to a college education over the next decade. Unlike the federal government, which can carry a budget deficit from year to year, New Jersey (and every other state but Vermont) has a balanced-budget requirement as part of its state constitution. For this reason, the less money that comes from the state the more money must come from students, their families, and other revenue sources. In an economic downturn, and without adequate federal support, state budget cuts end up hurting students the most. In addition, property taxes rise, tuition at state colleges jump, and middle class families find it harder and harder to realize their dreams. Adjusted for inflation, tuition at public four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. increased in recent years at four times the pace of median family income.

To make matters worse, the federal government institutes mandates for education that states must follow, but it fails to fund those mandates adequately.

(1) The most seriously under funded mandate is in special education, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). By this law, every special needs child must be provided an appropriate and free education; but instead of being paid for by the federal government (which enacted the law), local boards of education must pay these mandated costs.

(2) The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) places great pressure on local school districts to demonstrate success by meeting yearly progress goals for student achievement, but the federal government doesn’t provide sufficient financial assistance to enable schools to achieve these goals. It is a bureaucratic and financial nightmare.

(3) Similarly, President Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative, intended to make college affordable for middle class Americans, could help produce an adequate supply of advanced teachers in America; but if not fully funded, it is also destined to fail.

The federal government currently provides less than 10% of funding for public education nationwide, and nearly all of it is earmarked to support specific programs or to help certain categories of students. Moreover, it is unconscionable that in New Jersey taxpayers receive only $0.55 back out of every $1.00 they paid in federal income tax.

The solution is for Congress to provide adequate appropriations to fulfill federal mandates.

Special education, if funded wholly by the federal government, would dramatically alleviate New Jersey’s educational funding crisis and, at the same time, would permit property taxes to remain stable and to be used for other necessary public expenditures. In addition, NCLB’s requirement that the states must set aside 4% of their budget to fulfill the NCLB mandates should be repealed and, instead, an appropriation for this school improvement program should be provided by federal monies.

Finally, the American Competitiveness Initiative should be fully funded. Only in this way can New Jersey maintain high quality elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education for its students, with college tuition rates that New Jersey’s families can afford.

Conclusion

This is the type of commitment that must be made to education in the 21st Century. Only with this type of commitment can America remain secure. Only with this type of commitment can middle-class and low-income Americans pursue the classic American dream, with each generation standing on the shoulders of the older generation, achieving greater and greater things in their lives. Only with this type of commitment can we, as a country, preserve our unique heritage of what has been called “good old American know-how.” We need to look ahead, not behind; look up, not down; to forsake the pessimism that paralyzes us; and commit ourselves to a future of real achievement and renewed hope.

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Source: Drum Major Institute on the 2006 State of the Union, “Education”, pp. 5-6.
[ http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/report.php?ID=26 ]