Issue
28(1)
Tough
choices or tough times: The report of the new commission on the
skills of the American workforce.
(2008). National Center
on Education and the Economy. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. 208
pp., $19.95 (paperback). ISBN # 978-0-7879-9598-0.
Review by: Marie
Dillon Dahleh
Harvard School
of Engineering and Applied Sciences
The
first commission on the skills of the American workforce wrote
a report in 1990 entitled America
’s Choice: high skills
or low wages! This book
largely argues that low skilled jobs will be outsourced because
it is cheaper to do this labor outside of the United
States . The punch line of
the first report is that the American worker must be highly skilled.
This report is one of several which prompted standards based education.
The second commission report, Tough Choices or Tough Times:
The report of the new commission on the skills of the American
workforce, takes the argument one step further. It recognizes
that globalization has occurred at all skill levels. Both low
and high skill jobs are either outsourced or done by machines.
This idea is not new. In 2005, Thomas Friedman in his book, The
World is Flat , argues that both the globalization of the
workforce and the change in the business model from vertical integration
to one of horizontal integration will ultimately undermine the
American workforce and lower the country’s standard of living.
His book warns of the impending consequences but it does not offer
solutions to this problem. Touch choices or Tough Times offers
a solution to the problems noted by Friedman. Essentially the
commission argues that the United
States must radically rethink
our educational system to produce an invaluable workforce.
The
main argument in the book is that in order to convince companies
to use employees from the United States our workers must combine
the high “…skills of our leading competitors in the core curriculum-
math, science, and command of our native language…” with creativity
and innovation (p. 23). In many ways the standards based curriculum
is designed to address the skills of our students in math, science
and English. The new factor is the emphasis on creativity. “The
crucial new factor, the one that alone can justify higher wages
in this country than in other countries with similar levels of
cognitive skills, is creativity and innovation” (p. 29).
There
are 10 steps outlined by the commission to achieve the goal. The
results of these steps should increase the quality of teachers
and education from preschool through the university and beyond.
Improving teacher training and the quality of math and science
education are ideas which are echoed in the report Rising
Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for
a Brighter Economic Future also published in 2007. Rising
Above the Gathering Storm concentrates manly on how to ensure
the nations excellence in science and engineering. Touch Choices
echoes the importance of science and technology for the economy
(p 7). However this report is broader in that it argues that the
only jobs which will stay in the United
States are the ones which
“creative work” (p 26- 32). Steps (8-10) are to support continuing
education for all adults. The commission believes that this is
a crucial step in staying globally competitive.
The
report consists of three parts. Part I presents background data
for the challenges facing the US
educational system. This data
is a nice summary for anyone who needs to give a presentation
on the current state of the US
educational system. Part II
gives a picture of the US
educational system in 15 years if the 10 steps recommended by
the commission are adopted. This is a nice exercise in how they
see budgets readjusting and the possible improvements in the educational
system. The final part is a collection of background papers which
for the scenario work in part II.
This
book is a must read for anyone involved in the educational process
in the United States.
It is an alarming mandate for reform.
References
Committee
on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century: An Agenda
for American Science and Technology, National Academy of Sciences,
National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, Rising
Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for
a Brighter Economic Future. (2007). Washington,
DC: The National
Academies Press.
Friedman,
T. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first
century . New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
