When people talk about fixing what's wrong with the way we educate America's poor, minority children, they often make it sound like an act of charity, something we really ought to do -- if we can afford it. Of course the idea that this is somehow a luxury goes counter to our professed beliefs about justice and equity. But making sure that these children have the best possible education is not just a matter of equity; it's a matter of survival for our economy, and probably for our country. Anyone who doubts that should look at Education That Works: An Action Plan for the Education of Minorities, a report recently put out by the Quality Education for Minorities Project.
Our nation's economy is in bad shape. We are consuming more than we produce - between 1980 and 1986, the productivity of our workers rose only 2.2 percent, but our consumption rose 8.8 percent. We made up the difference by "eating up our seed corn," as a report puts it: by burrowing heavily, especially from foreigners; by continuing to ignore the decay of our infrastructure; and by spending our capital. To become competitive, we must increase our productivity or decrease our standard of living.
Of course that choice is not likely to come to a vote: Most Americans would rise up in revolt if policymakers suggested that we accept a lower standard of living (though like it or not, our real wages, relative to wages in other industrialized countries, have already fallen). But to increase our national productivity, we're going to have to increase the education levels of our workers. And we face stiff competition.
Just how stiff is indicated in comments that Ray Marshall, former secretary of Labor and chairman of the group that issued Education That Works, offers elsewhere about the qualifications and pay of some South Korean workers in a VCR plant near Seoul. These workers, who had the equivalent of six years of high-school and community-college math (through calculus), science and English, worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with two days off per year. Their pay? In the mid '80s, it was $3,000 a year. It's little wonder the U.S. produces no VCRs.
The decline in our competitiveness and the problems we'll have in catching up are alarming, but they are only part of the story. The rest is that we'll have to depend for renewed economic health on the talents and skills of the very groups that are often poorly served by our schools. As Education That Works reminds us, members of minority groups will form an increasingly large percentage of our population and our workforce: Between now and the year 2000, "minorities ... will account for 60 percent of the total population growth. White males, presently the source of most elite workers in the mass production system, will constitute less than 10 percent of the net growth of our workforce between now and 2000." The report expects the white majority to have become a minority by 2080, and it points out that minority enrollment in public schools has topped 50 percent, or is close to doing so, in five states and the District of Columbia and is 40 percent or above in five other states.
It's clear we'll have to count on minority students to make us competitive with those hard-working South Koreans. It's also clear that, on average, they're less successful in school than white students: Many more drop out; many fewer go to college. Education That Works cites scores on college entrance examinations to illustrate differences in average achievement levels between white and minority students, and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores tell the same story. In recent years, minority students have been closing the gap, but NAEP results show that the achievement levels of black and Hispanic students are still well below those of white students.
No wonder. The poorest kids often have to make do with the worst schools -- overcrowded and underfinanced, wretchedly maintained, dangerous -- schools where learning, when it takes place at all, takes place under the most difficult of circumstances. So it is essential that, as we work to restructure all our schools, we pay special attention to the needs of poor, minority students. Education That Works does so with a comprehensive plan that covers preschool through college and beyond.
The report points to a number of successful programs, like James Comer's work restructuring two inner-city elementary schools in New Haven, Conn., and the West Philadelphia Improvement Corps, a cooperative effort among the University of Pennsylvania, community organizations and people, and six local schools. The report talks about what the private sector and the state and federal governments should be doing. And it offers, yes, six goals, each tied to actions and programs that would help achieve them.
Education That Works is clear about the threat facing the U.S.: If we continue our failure to educate poor, minority students, we risk becoming a third-rate nation. But the report also shows how equal opportunity for all students is well within our reach - if we are willing to invest the money. Considering the stakes, how can we hesitate?