No Child Left Unemployed

The convergence of education and the economy is evident in two separate reports issued this week.  The findings make it clear that we need to pay attention to the competencies our children acquire in school if we expect them to be gainfully employed as adults (not to mention happy and productive individuals).

The Pew Research Center‘s report on The Rising Cost of Not Going to College tells us:

“On virtually every measure of economic well-being and career attainment—from personal earnings to job satisfaction to the share employed full time—young college graduates are outperforming their peers with less education. And when today’s young adults are compared with previous generations, the disparity in economic outcomes between college graduates and those with a high school diploma or less formal schooling has never been greater in the modern era.”

We’re not talking about small change – the Pew analysis finds that college graduates ages 25 to 32 who are working full time earn about $17,500 more annually than employed young adults holding only a high school diploma.

In Massachusetts, 72% of jobs by 2020 will require a career certificate or college degree, yet 38% of students entering Massachusetts public colleges and universities are unprepared for college level work.  This means that students who have passed MCAS and earned good enough grades for college admission  have to spend time and money on remedial courses before they can start earning credit toward a degree.  According to the Alliance for Excellent Education,  if Massachusetts high schools were to graduate all students ready for college, the state would likely save as much as $76 million in college remediation costs and lost earnings.

Giving every child the education that prepares them to do college level work – even if they choose a different pathway – is essential if we want our kids to have options in a future with jobs we haven’t even imagined yet.

If you don’t believe me, just look at the Innovation Index issued annually by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative or the State of Technology report released this week by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council.  In addition to describing the impact and significance of the technology sector on the Massachusetts economy, the report warns:

“Policies in Massachusetts should help promote competitiveness, innovation, entrepreneurship, and opportunity. … it turns out that creating tech jobs is not the real challenge. It’s filling them.”

“Attracting, developing, and retaining talent is perhaps the most critical issue threatening our ability to compete, lead, and grow as a world tech leader in the global economy. … We … don’t graduate enough high school students with the computational skills to enter the knowledge economy.”

MBAE believes Massachusetts can educate our children to earn the credentials necessary to fill these jobs, earn family-sustaining wages, be productive citizens and help our economy thrive.   Our New Opportunity to Leadcampaign is developing proposals for a new direction for education so we can not only claim to have a “world class” education system, but actually deliver one.  These reports make it clear why it is imperative that we do so!