National Security Peril: Weak Schools; Says Council on Foreign Relations

To the extent that The Establishment exists in this pluralistic, multi-faceted global society, the Council on Foreign Relations embodies its values and views.

So when it is announced - in the Wall Street Journal - that the Council has found that the state of US schools may imperil the nation's economic, social and military security, one may infer cause for concern.

What is fascinating is that progressives have been making this argument for decades. The evidence, from the influx of foreign knowledge workers to the outflow of productive capacity, has been readily apparent from business and academic studies. But the austerity policies promoted by many of the same business and government leaders who comprised the CFR panel have led to cuts in educational budgets that directly threaten the very system this analysis claims must have additional funds.

One hopes that this signals an honest debate within conservative ideological ranks and not simply a case of cognitive dissonance. The causal relationship between educational attainment and financial security is unquestioned, as is the similarly strong relationship between economic stability and national security strength. That these currents are fueled by investment in education should not require a leap of either faith or imagination. JL

Jason Dean reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Flaws in U.S. schools are increasingly causing a national-security risk, producing adults without the math, science and language skills necessary to ensure American leadership in the 21st century, warns a report issued Tuesday by the Council on Foreign Relations.

Warning that "the education crisis is a national security crisis," the report says that too many schools are failing to adequately equip students for the work force, and that many have stopped teaching the sort of basic civics that prepare students for citizenship. Resources and expertise aren't distributed equitably, often hurting the most at-risk students. The situation, it says, puts the country's "future economic prosperity, global position, and physical safety at risk."
The report notes that U.S. students have performed poorly on international assessment tests against those from other nations that are making rapid strides. It points to reported shortages of qualified workers in the U.S. life-science and aerospace industries, and notes that the State Department and intelligence agencies are "facing critical language shortfalls in areas of strategic interest."

It cites a recent study saying that more than half of Americans aged 17 to 24 aren't qualified to join the military because they drop out of high school or graduate but lack the math, science, and English skills to perform well on standardized military-qualification tests.

The authors recommend expanding core standards for states—now focused on math and literacy—to science, technology and foreign-language skills. The report urges wider use of charter schools and other alternatives to neighborhood public schools that are underperforming, and it suggests an annual "national security readiness audit" to help policy makers and citizens assess the "level of educational readiness."

The report acknowledges the persistence of the problems it highlights, noting that many of the same risks were identified in "Nation at Risk," a 1983 report commissioned by the Reagan administration that warned of "a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people." But it cites reasons for fresh hope, including growing public awareness of the issues and bipartisan support for measures to address them.

"This country has a real but time-limited opportunity to make changes that would maintain the United States' position in the world and its security at home," it concludes.

The report was prepared for the New York-based nonpartisan think tank and publisher by a task force of 30 members from business, academia, government and education groups, including Louis Gerstner, former chairman of International Business Machines Corp., Margaret Spellings, former U.S. education secretary under George W. Bush, and Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America, which recruits college graduates to teach in inner-city schools.

The group was led by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Joel Klein, a former New York City schools chancellor who is now executive vice president at News Corp. overseeing its education division.

News Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal.

Six members of the task force offered "additional and dissenting views," including Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a leading teachers union. While praising the task force's goals and endorsing the report, she criticized it for "placing inordinate responsibility for school improvement on individual teachers" and for "promoting policies like the current topdown, standardized test-driven accountability that has narrowed the curriculum and reinforced the teaching of lower-level skills."