George Bush wrote in a letter to the
U.S. public in 2006, addressing
national policies on education.
With China and India graduating a combined 950,000 engineers
annually—nearly 14 times the
amount the United States is producing—it is imperative that our
U.S. schools get all children to
catch up. According to the
Semiconductor Industry
Association, fewer than 6 percent of
this nation’s high-school seniors
plan to pursue engineering degrees,
a 33 percent decline from
1990–2000. In addition, a survey
comparing U.S. teens against other
industrialized nations found that
U.S. teens ranked 24th out of 28 in
math and 24th out of 40 in science. The United States is home to
18 of the top 20 universities in the
world and spends a higher percentage of its GDP on education than
Europe or Japan combined, but the
median scores of this nation’s 15-
year-olds show how poorly the
country is competing.
“We talk about the economic
viability of our country, yet we’re
not even getting the best talent.
We’re going to need the best and
brightest from everywhere,” says
Dr. Joan Reede, dean of Diversity
and Community Partnership at
Harvard University.
One of the factors hindering our
nation from fully developing talent is
the lack of integration in public
schools. A report from the Harvard
University Civil Rights Project shows
that more than 75 percent of intensely segregated schools are comprised of students from low-income
households. The report notes that in
New York, 86 percent of students of
color attend schools that have few
white students. In southern states
such as Mississippi, Georgia and
Alabama, more than 70 percent of
students attend segregated schools.
70%
60
1986 1993 2003
50
40
30
20
10
0
White
Black
Latino
Asian
Native
American
… But SAT Scores Still Show a Huge Gap
600 VERBAL
MATH
500
400
300
1991 2005 1991 2005
White Black Latino Asian NativeAmerican
Source: College Entrance Examination Board; National Center for Education Statistics
Districts across the nation have attempted to bring racial balance to their
schools through race-based admissions. The current Supreme Court appears
to be taking a hard look at that policy, as they recently decided to hear two
cases that may impact a state’s ability to use race in student assignment. The
court seems poised to reverse earlier decisions upholding race-based admissions to schools, as lawsuits were filed in Louisville and Seattle in which
white students were denied admittance in an attempt to ensure racial balance.
The critical reason to emphasize more integrated schools is that they begin
to level the playing field. Bill Gates, who recently announced plans to leave
his full-time job as head of Microsoft to address public-education issues
through the Gates Foundation, addressed the National Education Summit
last year. He contended that every student counts, yet only a fraction of the
kids in the United States are getting the best education. “Once we realize that
we are keeping low-income and minority kids out of rigorous courses, there
can be only two arguments for keeping it that way: either we think they can’t
learn, or we think they’re not worth teaching. The first argument is factually
wrong; the second is morally wrong,” said Gates.
