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Open Letter to President Obama
Earlier this month in anticipation of President Obama's jobs speech, ACTA sent a letter to President Obama and Congressional leaders reminding them that any jobs agend must include higher education reform. The full text follows:
Dear President Obama:
As you, and other national leaders, prepare to address our country's dire job situation, it's important to keep in mind one reason employers aren't hiring: they're not happy with the caliber of recent college graduates. Each year, more than 1.5 million Americans walk across a stage, turn a tassel and accept a diploma. Unfortunately, that diploma is rapidly losing its value. A college education simply isn't delivering the skills and knowledge employers and the global marketplace require. Any jobs agenda must include higher education reform.
Why? Colleges are offering an education in name only. Our review of more than 1000 schools across the country, released last week under the title What Will They Learn?, www.whatwilltheylearn.com, shows that only 5% require economics; less than 20% require American history or government. More than 60% have three or fewer curricular requirements, allowing students to graduate with vast gaps in their skills and knowledge.
Employers confirm this. Studies published by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the Conference Board/ 21st Century Partnership show that 87% of employers believe American colleges and universities must raise the quality of student achievement for our country to remain competitive in a global market. 63% say recent college graduates do not have the skills they need to succeed. Over a quarter of employers consider entry-level writing skills to be deficient. How can we expect the students of today to become the leaders of tomorrow when the American higher education system is equipping them only with wishful thinking and a mere shell of an education?
The American people understand the impact of these realities. In a Roper Survey conducted last month, 70% said they believe a core curriculum - rich in the basics of math, economics, history, and writing, among others - should be mandatory for all college students. That number rose to 80% among 25- to 34-year-olds, the segment that includes hundreds of thousands of young Americans struggling to find employment and realizing their education, devoid of the fundamentals, isn't enough to net them that first job.
It's not a matter of more money; U.S. spending on postsecondary education is already, per student, more than twice as much as the OECD average. It is a question of demanding that higher education return to its first principles - rigorous, college-level education. The world has a labor surplus and that is not going to change. The only thing that will change is America's ability to produce graduates who have the core skills and knowledge that will enable them to be leaders and innovators in the global economy.
Any agenda to spur job opportunities in America, either short or long term, will be hollow without our leadership urging real and comprehensive change in higher education. We encourage all of our national and educational leaders to see this as a priority and to put a spotlight on this challenge. It's a question of making a degree worth more than the paper it is printed on. If we want job growth in America, we must demand higher education reform.
Sincerely,
Anne D. Neal
President
cc: Speaker John Boehner
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Posted by Max Brindle on September 12, 2011 at September 12, 2011 11:53 AM
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