Education in America

By Jerry Pournelle

March 14, 2005

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Education

Bill Gates has come out with a blast against the American school system, calling for a complete reform. He says, among other things, "Frankly, I am terrified for our workforce of tomorrow." He says our high schools are obsolete. "By obsolete, I don't just mean that they are broken, flawed and underfunded—although I can't argue with any of those descriptions. What I mean is that they were designed 50 years ago to meet the needs of another age. Today, even when they work exactly as designed, our high schools cannot teach our kids what they need to know."

This is strong language, and his remarks were not popular among educators, even back home in Seattle.

Even so, the only people who are vigorous in disagreeing with Gates's conclusion that the system is broken seem to be politicians and Teacher's Union spokespeople. (They agree something is wrong, but their remedy is invariably to raise taxes and spend more money.) Most of us wonder what is happening to the schools and where they are going, and anyone who has witnessed the exponential need for Bonehead English and Bonehead Math for college freshmen will have little doubt that something is very wrong. Education at all levels spends more every year—in the U.S. more than any society has spent in history—and the results of all that spending are not immediately obvious.

However, when you turn to what ought to be done about this, there is far less agreement. Gates seems to think that the remedy is to continue our one size fits all education policy, but now the emphasis will be on making every kid graduate from high school ready for college.

"We have to do away with the outdated idea that only some students need to be ready for college and that the others can walk away from higher education and still thrive in our 21st century society. We need a new design that realizes that all students can do rigorous work.

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