CONGRESS DISCOVERS GLOBAL ECONOMY
Spooked by xenophobic headlines and shocked they weren’t consulted over Dubai Ports World taking over six major US ports, Congress squelched the DPW deal over security fears, yet neglect to notice this country is awash in foreigners who own a piece of our country.
As pundits took measurements of shipping containers to see how many nuclear devices could be shipped through New Jersey, we learned that port operators aren't in charge of security. That task falls to the federal government. Security experts then discovered that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey took names and numbers of truck drivers entering and leaving the port with cargo but never checked up on them. Half the drivers had criminal records. Clearly, port operators do not do security. But neither do the responsible agencies, it would seem.
The Dubai deal was nixed because Congress focused on the word “Arab” rather than that giant sucking sound of money leaving the country. Arabs, however, are not such a monolithic group. And Dubai, one of the richest, most capitalistic places on earth (with a living standard higher than the US), just wanted to be part of the global economy.
Where was Congress when other foreign businesses marched onto our shores? Did Congress squawk about Daimler-Chrysler? Or object when Scottish Power bought up power companies and built wind farms? Or when 7-11 stores were sold to Japan? American workers and consumers were lucky Congress wasn’t consulted when Nissan, Toyota, Honda and Subaru built plants across the mid-South. Of 1,500 international takeovers in the past decade, the US government has been consulted fewer than two dozen times.
Congress doesn’t blink at the fact that many American tax returns are sent to India for completion, and that China is permitted to hold billions of dollars of US treasury bonds, not to mention US home mortgages. The global economy in which we are involved does its shipping on carriers flying the Liberian and Panamanian flags, buys gasoline from Royal Dutch Shell or British Petroleum, takes cruises on Norwegian luxury liners, buys furniture at IKEA, wine from Chile, and apples from New Zealand.
The challenge for the US is not to subvert the global economy, but to remain competitive in it. In education, US parents must be challenged to make sure their kids are doing something more than getting swept along by “adequate yearly progress.” Today, only 18 of every 100 ninth graders will earn a college degree. Parents, school boards, governors, and taxpayers should be hopping mad about this. It puts our economy and our quality of life at risk.
As Congress busied itself rejecting Dubai, the National Center for Educational Statistics reported that a rigorous high school curriculum including three or four years of English, social studies, math, and science was required for college success. Economists predicted that by the end of the next decade $1 of every $5 in the US economy will be spent on health care. We need plenty of talented, educated, and well-trained people to keep us healthy and alive. We need people who are going to solve problems, innovate, teach our kids and keep our economy competitive, and to create wealth.
American universities are starting to grasp the global economy by ramping up competitive programs. But parents and secondary schools must do more. Production of engineers and computer scientists has been falling for a decade. This year alone, China and India will each produce four times as many engineers as all US universities. There are 14 million students in US colleges and universities, and only 75,000 engineers and computer scientists will come out of that pipeline this year - about one-half of one percent.
We risk losing our competitive edge, not because we're not smart enough but because we aren’t working hard enough. American kids can do math and science. They can write better. They can create. They can learn other languages, understand other cultures. American kids say they would work harder if they were pushed harder.
It’s clear that American education needs better support, not just lip service from the federal government. Parents and teachers need to push harder for excellence. Anything short of that will find the United States on the outside looking in when it comes to the global economy. Dubai will be the least of our problems.
Dick Pratt is Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.
As pundits took measurements of shipping containers to see how many nuclear devices could be shipped through New Jersey, we learned that port operators aren't in charge of security. That task falls to the federal government. Security experts then discovered that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey took names and numbers of truck drivers entering and leaving the port with cargo but never checked up on them. Half the drivers had criminal records. Clearly, port operators do not do security. But neither do the responsible agencies, it would seem.
The Dubai deal was nixed because Congress focused on the word “Arab” rather than that giant sucking sound of money leaving the country. Arabs, however, are not such a monolithic group. And Dubai, one of the richest, most capitalistic places on earth (with a living standard higher than the US), just wanted to be part of the global economy.
Where was Congress when other foreign businesses marched onto our shores? Did Congress squawk about Daimler-Chrysler? Or object when Scottish Power bought up power companies and built wind farms? Or when 7-11 stores were sold to Japan? American workers and consumers were lucky Congress wasn’t consulted when Nissan, Toyota, Honda and Subaru built plants across the mid-South. Of 1,500 international takeovers in the past decade, the US government has been consulted fewer than two dozen times.
Congress doesn’t blink at the fact that many American tax returns are sent to India for completion, and that China is permitted to hold billions of dollars of US treasury bonds, not to mention US home mortgages. The global economy in which we are involved does its shipping on carriers flying the Liberian and Panamanian flags, buys gasoline from Royal Dutch Shell or British Petroleum, takes cruises on Norwegian luxury liners, buys furniture at IKEA, wine from Chile, and apples from New Zealand.
The challenge for the US is not to subvert the global economy, but to remain competitive in it. In education, US parents must be challenged to make sure their kids are doing something more than getting swept along by “adequate yearly progress.” Today, only 18 of every 100 ninth graders will earn a college degree. Parents, school boards, governors, and taxpayers should be hopping mad about this. It puts our economy and our quality of life at risk.
As Congress busied itself rejecting Dubai, the National Center for Educational Statistics reported that a rigorous high school curriculum including three or four years of English, social studies, math, and science was required for college success. Economists predicted that by the end of the next decade $1 of every $5 in the US economy will be spent on health care. We need plenty of talented, educated, and well-trained people to keep us healthy and alive. We need people who are going to solve problems, innovate, teach our kids and keep our economy competitive, and to create wealth.
American universities are starting to grasp the global economy by ramping up competitive programs. But parents and secondary schools must do more. Production of engineers and computer scientists has been falling for a decade. This year alone, China and India will each produce four times as many engineers as all US universities. There are 14 million students in US colleges and universities, and only 75,000 engineers and computer scientists will come out of that pipeline this year - about one-half of one percent.
We risk losing our competitive edge, not because we're not smart enough but because we aren’t working hard enough. American kids can do math and science. They can write better. They can create. They can learn other languages, understand other cultures. American kids say they would work harder if they were pushed harder.
It’s clear that American education needs better support, not just lip service from the federal government. Parents and teachers need to push harder for excellence. Anything short of that will find the United States on the outside looking in when it comes to the global economy. Dubai will be the least of our problems.
Dick Pratt is Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.
posted by Dick Pratt at
7:52 AM
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