Column by Derek Brown

Over the past few weeks, Capitol Hill has played host to an age-old political debate. While etching out the specifics on President Obama’s proposed economic stimulus package, democrats urged the need for more government spending on the infrastructure to create jobs. From the other side of the aisle, republicans repeated that tax cuts were the only answer to our current economic disaster. While something must be done immediately to jump-start our country’s climb out of this recession, the representatives in Washington must keep in mind that the only measure that can assure future economic prosperity is education reform.

It is all about education.

A 2006 study performed by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) shows U.S. education lagging in comparison with other countries around the world. On the OECD’s key indicator of math performance for 15-year-olds, the U.S. ranks 25 out of the 30 countries involved. It wasn’t only other economic powers that placed ahead of America in the rankings. Also finishing ahead of the U.S. were Estonia, Slovenia and Azerbaijan.  These findings should be alarming. We did not build this country by following the rest of the world. We rose to power economically through innovation, intelligence and discovery. We cannot expect future generations to make a pattern of this prosperity if we do not educate them to the highest levels. The time for serious action in the Department of Education is now.

In the past two weeks, one version of Obama’s stimulus package passed the House of Representatives, while a different version (full of smaller and less extravagant figures) was passed in the Senate. The first bill, which passed through the House, had $79 billion in funding set aside for education. The more recent Senate version of the bill has lowered that figure to $39 billion. Newly minted education secretary Arne Duncan has vowed to fight for the original amount of funding. “The fact is that we are not just in an economic crisis; we are in an educational crisis,” he said. “We have to educate ourselves to a better economy.” I’ll admit the first step to fixing our schools is by properly funding them, but it is only the beginning of an enormous mountain we must climb.

The amount of funding education receives is yet to be determined, but no matter the number, it must not overshadow the reform. We can’t afford to just throw money at the problem. The No Child Left Behind bill needs refining; early childhood education needs expanding; good teachers need to be paid more and ill-equipped teachers must no longer hide behind tenure. None of these tasks will happen by themselves, and simply signing a check will fix nothing. Duncan must rethink the way we teach, for our future society depends upon it.

It is an interesting time to be alive in America. To think that we are involved in two wars, falling behind the curve in education and dealing with an economic recession, all at the same time, can be scary. Our government is surely to be tested. But with problems come opportunities. A few right moves can propel our country into another period of American prosperity. Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is well aware of this fact. “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” he told the Wall Street Journal in November. Let’s hope Obama and company doesn’t make waste of the current crisis. If something is not done about our education, there is no feasible way we, as Americans, can continue to lead the world. It’s all about education.