Yesterday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held the first in a series of hearings focused on reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), titled “The Importance of World-Class K-12 Education for our Economic Success.”  Committee chairman, Senator Tom Harkin, in his introductory remarks emphasized that the United States has fallen in many educational categories relative to the rest of the world.  For example, college completion rates of U.S. students have fallen to 12^th in the world, and this country has fallen from 3^rd to 15^th in the number of scientists and engineers produced – an area vital to our increasingly technological world. Ranking member, Senator Michael Enzi, stated that our economy depends on skilled workers and that some training and education beyond high school is needed to earn a family sustaining wage. We are threatened with a deficit of skilled workers, which impedes our ability to lead the world in global competitiveness.

Witnesses included:

• Andreas Schleicher, head of the Indicators and Analysis Division, Education Directorate, Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, Paris, France
• Dennis Van Roekel, president, National Education Association
• Charles Butt, chairman and CEO of H-E-B, San Antonio, Texas
• John Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable

In his written statement, Mr. Van Roekel stated that we live in a rapidly changing world, and “our public school system must adapt to the needs of the new global economy. Every student will need to graduate from high school, pursue postsecondary educational options, and focus on a lifetime of learning because many of tomorrow’s jobs have not even been conceived of today.”

Mr. Castellani provided the Business Roundtable’s ESEA recommendations in his written testimony.  Included in these recommendations was to engage students by “demonstrating that standards based curriculum has real world applications in acquisition of knowledge and increased opportunities for career exploration and exposure.”

While none of these witnesses mentioned CTE, certainly their recommendations and concerns could be met in part by the the work being done in CTE.

Tags: Congress, federal legislation, global competition, NCLB/ESEA, Public Policy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 11:39 am and is filed under Legislation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.