Two former governors of West Virginia, Gaston Caperton and Bob Wise, are sounding an alarm Americans have heard so many times that they may have become deaf to it. They should not; Wise, Caperton and the many others who have voiced the concern are absolutely right. The problem they highlight will not go away.
Caperton, president of the College Board, sees symptoms of the problem. His organization administers college entrance examinations to students throughout the country.
During a graduation speech last weekend at West Virginia University Institute of Technology, Caperton reminded those present that, “Our country’s future depends on how well our students do in education.”
Not very well, to judge by standardized tests taken by students in this country and many others. On those tests measuring knowledge of mathematics, American students rank behind their peers in 19 other countries, Caperton said. The picture is even worse for science, with students in 23 other nations outperforming Americans.
Coincidentally, Caperton’s speech was given at about the same time another former governor, Wise, was publishing a book. Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, is the author of “Raising the Grade: How High School Reform Can Save Our Youth and Our Nation.”
Wise, too, warns of the need to provide better educations for America’s young people. His focus is high schools, where much of the work of science and math education is done. And he, too, is concerned that schools are not doing an adequate job of educating young people for a high-tech future.
Caperton and Wise are absolutely correct. More needs to be done to bring American students up to the same levels of education that benefit their counterparts in far too many other countries.
If that does not happen, the quality of life we and our parents enjoyed for so many years will be but a dream for our children and grandchildren. Instead, the descendants of people in other countries, where education is more of an emphasis, will reap the fruits of their labors in the classroom.
