Globalization and America’s Education Reform

Published in ZaoBao
(China) on 21 October 2010
by Shiyu, Yu (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Zoe Wang. Edited by Heidi Kaufmann.
One important piece of news in America lately is that Michelle Rhee, the Korean-American chancellor of the District of Columbia’s public schools, resigned before her term was up.

Since taking office in June 2007, Michelle Rhee, supported by former Washington mayor Adrian Fenty, has taken drastic measures to promote public primary- and secondary-education reform. One of the most striking measures that she took was breaking the deep-rooted seniority system and firing hundreds of incompetent teachers. Washington public school students were the beneficiaries of this policy. Their grades, which used to rank almost last in all of the American states, have improved considerably. Michelle Rhee has therefore become a revolutionary education celebrity and has been well-known to Americans for the past few years.

Rhee’s reform has, of course, offended the vested interests, especially of the African-American workers who have worked in the old public school system for their entire lives. The reform caused the black community in Washington to turn against Rhee. It also resulted in the failure of reelection for the supportive Mayor Fenty. The newly elected mayor, unlike his predecessor, was hostile toward Rhee’s education reform. Rhee therefore has no choice but to resign, a major setback for American education reform.
America’s education reform has been an important issue in society for many years. But it is more urgent now under the influences of globalization. As I mentioned before, capital — especially American capital — is the biggest winner in globalization. The major winners besides that are technology and knowledge. The Wall Street Journal commented that America has recently entered into an “idea-driven economy.” Obvious proof of this societal trend is that more and more next-generation billionaires are from high-technology industries.

America has the most advanced higher education and research systems, which entitles the country to obtain a significant amount of intellectual property in the globalization process. However, the quality of primary and secondary education is continuously falling, causing the country to lose its competitiveness in the manufacturing industry and causing the decline of the blue-collar middle class. In the long run, the falling quality of primary and secondary education is going to threaten the country’s economic dominance in the world.

Take the current China-U.S. exchange-rate controversy, for example: Even if the RMB (Chinese currency) appreciated drastically, America’s employment situation is not going to improve very much because of that. The reason is because with its current education and technology background, the American blue-collar class is not capable of competing with workers from many of the newly developing industrialized countries in Asia.

The situation occurred not because American workers demand high wages. For example, German workers also have high wages and even more social welfare [programs], yet it still maintains its international competitiveness in the manufacturing industry. Its main target for export growth is China. German workers’ education and technology backgrounds are the key components of their competitiveness.

The former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Raghuram Rajan, an Indian professor at the University of Chicago, recently pointed out in the German magazine Der Spiegel that the reason for the American housing bubble — which triggered the largest global economic crisis since World War II — was that American politicians were unable to increase the lower class’ stagnant income by improving their educational level. Instead, the politicians passed loose home-mortgage policies to increase the lower class’ spending power. The burst of the false property bubble highlighted even more of the long-term dilemma faced by the American blue-collar class.

From a historic standpoint, education is the cornerstone of American fortunes. The New York Times had pointed out years ago that education is the real driving force for America to become the world’s economic and military power. Because it lacked the hereditary social customs of Europe, America became the world leader in giving education to the public, therefore cultivating a working class whose average educational level ranked first in the world, and therefore [it] became a world economic leader. At the end of World War II, America’s Congress passed the “GI Bill” to make advanced education available to the general public. The bill and the fact that education was available to everyone ensured America’s long-term economic development after the war. It also ensured America’s final victory in the Cold War.

But now the quality of America’s public education is not only decreasing in the international level, it is also falling behind compared to its own history: The average educational level of the younger generation is gradually decreasing, compared to their parents, who were the “baby boomer” generation. Faced with this situation, America is exacerbated by the urgency of education reform — unprecedented since the founding of the United States.

Obama has been making wanton promises in education reform, even when he was still running for president. But Rome was not built in one day, and neither was the rigid American public education [system] and its inefficiency. One of the biggest shortcomings of the public education system is that the teachers themselves lack competition — a competition that can force them to get out of their comfort zone and actually improve their quality as teachers. But as an important social foundation and one of the biggest donors to the Democratic Party, the teachers’ union strongly opposed the introduction of “internecine” inside competition. Obama, facing the return of the Republicans because of the economic stagnation, can’t afford to get into trouble with one of his biggest supporters.

The departure of Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of the District of Columbia’s public schools, is one more proof that the wish to use education reform to revive the U.S. hegemony in the world is water that is much too distant to put out a nearby fire.

(The author works in America’s research center.)





全球化和美国的教育改革
[于时语] (2010-10-21)
近日美国的一宗重要国内新闻,是华盛顿特区韩裔教育总监李阳熙(Michelle Rhee)任满之前黯然辞职。
李阳熙2007年6月就任以来,在华盛顿现任市长艾德里安•芬蒂(Adrian Fenty)支持下,大刀阔斧地推进公立中小学的教育改革。最醒目的便是打破根深蒂固的“大锅饭”和论资排辈,将数百名不称职的教师炒了鱿鱼,原先在全美几乎倒数第一的华盛顿公立学校学生的成绩,也获得相当的改进。李阳熙因此成为近年闻名全美的风云人物和教育改革明星。
李的改革自然也开罪了既得利益,特别是靠公立教育系统吃饭的黑人职工,蔓延到华盛顿的黑人多数人口对她“倒戈”,殃及支持李的市长芬蒂在连任初选中败选,李阳熙也因此与赢得初选的继任市长交恶,不得不挂冠求去,成为美国教育改革的一大挫折。
教育改革多年来一直是美国社会的重要议题,但是在全球化浪潮中显得更加迫切。这是因为如我在《联合早报》前文指出:资本,尤其美国资本,是全球化的最大赢家,此外的主要赢家便是技术知识力量,以至《华尔街日报》新近形容美国转入了“创意型经济(idea-driven economy)”。越来越多的新一代亿万富翁来自高科技领域,是这一社会趋势的明证.
美国尽管具有全球最先进的高等教育和科学研究体系,并因此在全球化过程中获取大量的知识产权利益,但是其中小学教育质量和产出的相对地位却不断下降,成为美国制造业竞争力丧失、蓝领中产阶级衰亡的重要内因,从长远角度威胁到美国的经济霸主地位。
以时下的中美汇率争议为例,明眼人都知道,即便人民币大幅度升值,至多只是改变美国消费品的进口来源,美国就业情况不会有多少改善。这是因为美国蓝领阶层的现有教育和技能,并不具有与亚洲许多新兴工业国家竞争的能力。
这一情况并不在于美国的高工资水平,例证是工资水平不相上下、社会福利更多的德国,依然维持了其制造业的国际竞争力,出口增长的最主要对象正是中国。德国工人的教育和技能水平是这一竞争力的重要因素。
国际货币基金会前首席经济学学家、芝加哥大学印裔教授拉古拉姆•瑞占(Raghuram Rajan)新近对德国《明镜》周刊指出:触发二战以来最大全球经济危机的美国房产泡沫的根源,是美国政客无法通过改善教育来提高下层阶级停滞不前的收入,因而通过宽松的房贷来增加他们的消费能力。这一虚假财产泡沫的破灭,更加突出了美国蓝领阶层面临的长期困境。
曾几何时,美国的公共教育不仅在横向国际对比下日渐落后,就是在纵向历史比较下也开始倒退:正在成长接班的年轻一代的平均教育程度,逐渐低于婴儿潮中诞生的父母一代。在教育程度一代不如一代的局面,是美国立国以来首次发生,加剧了教育改革的紧迫性。
从历史角度,教育是美国国运的基石。《纽约时报》年前便指出:教育是美国成为世界经济和军事强国的真正动力。因为缺乏欧洲的世袭社会传统,美国是普及公共教育的世界领袖,从而培养出平均教育程度全球第一的劳工阶层,成为世界经济领袖。二战末期美国国会通过“老兵法案(G.I. Bill)”普及高等教育,更导致战后的长期经济增长,确保了冷战的最终胜利。
还在竞选总统期间,奥巴马就在改善教育上大肆许愿。但美国公共教育僵化和低效是冰冻三尺,非一日之寒,其一大弊病是历来吃大锅饭的教师队伍内部缺乏竞争。但是教师工会是民主党的重要社会基础和施主,强烈反对引进“自相残杀的”行内竞争机制。面对共和党借经济停滞而卷土重来的奥巴马,难捅自己阵营内的这个马蜂窝。
华盛顿学监李阳熙“出师未捷身先去”,更说明要靠教育改革来重振美国世界霸主地位,实在是远水不救近火。
作者在北美从事科研工作
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