America\u2019s public schools are failing. From the smallest towns to the biggest cities, our schools aren\u2019t delivering the tools that young people need in today\u2019s economy. Many kids simply aren\u2019t finishing school. And too many who do graduate are unprepared for college and the working world. Comprehensive reform is needed. There are plenty of signs that there\u2019s something wrong with the status quo. More than 7,000 students drop out every day \u2014 that\u2019s about 1.2 million students each year. The national high school graduation rate, around 73 percent, is lower than it was 40 years ago. Students couldn\u2019t be quitting school at a worse time. Technology is catapulting us forward. Jobs are increasingly complex. According to the federal government statistics, more than half of all new jobs in the next five years will require some college. Only about 30 percent of low-income young Americans go on to earn any kind of degree or certificate after finishing high school. But simply reducing the dropout rate won\u2019t make things better. Getting a high school diploma is no longer a guarantee that someone is ready for college. More than one third of America\u2019s college students require remedial classes to learn what they should have learned in high school. Roughly 60 percent of students at community colleges have to take some remedial classes before they can pursue their degree. These extra courses cost taxpayers, students and parents about $2 billion annually. And businesses now spend substantial amounts of time and money teaching employees what they should have learned in school. To produce the next generation of workers, we must improve our schools. Lawmakers have the most important role to play. They could start by looking at ways to change the way teachers are taught and recruited. They should also consider restructuring the teacher-student relationship. Perhaps students and teachers should stay together for multiple years. Raising state standards will also help. One idea that\u2019s gaining traction is the creation of a uniform roadmap, from primary school to high school, so that once a student receives a diploma she would actually be able to continue on to college or smoothly transition into the workforce. Nonprofits, too, can improve educational outcomes. Over the last decade, for example, the Millennium Scholars program from the Gates Foundation has provided 12,000 scholarships to promising low-income students. The result? About eight in 10 students receiving these funds graduate from college within five years. The business community also has a role to play. Together with the Gates Foundation, Viacom has launched “Get Schooled,” a five-year initiative that creates a platform for corporate and community stakeholders to address the challenges facing the public education system. American businesses must also find innovative ways to encourage today\u2019s students to succeed. We need to make a habit of communicating with government leaders and educators on a regular basis. We can \u2014 and should \u2014 offer insights into how the world economy is evolving. We can\u2019t allow the nation\u2019s students to be left behind. Our failure to produce a properly educated workforce today will cripple our ability to compete in the global arena tomorrow. The time to act is now. \u2014 Philippe Dauman is the president and CEO of Viacom. On Sept. 8 at 8 p.m., Viacom will be airing a 30-minute special on the rewards of education on all of its networks.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
America\u2019s public schools are failing. From the smallest towns to the biggest cities, our schools aren\u2019t delivering the tools that young people need in today\u2019s economy. Many kids simply aren\u2019t finishing school. And too many who do graduate are unprepared for college and the working world. Comprehensive reform is needed. There are plenty of signs […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Our public schools are crippling the economy","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11593,11552,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-no-images","category-opinion","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}