As Mr. Obama continues his march to the White House, every issue except Education seems to be lining up for their $n, $nn or $nnn billion transfusion. The caretakers (undertakers) of the auto industry are pleading for their lives but not creating cars the people did not know they want. The banks are waiting to see who has the equity to asset ratios to survive and get government investment.
If the US auto industry is to survive then they must invent and deliver cars just not based on what people want – that has failed them in the past. Their cars must surprise and delight customers so much that they have to buy them.
If the US banking and finance industry is to provide a secure economic foundation for our nation, it must transform itsi [0] protections against fraud and greed - using the most effective systems - while supporting economic growth and citizen prosperity.
Last week the debate was heavy as we were waiting for the shoe to fall to see who will be our new Secretary of Education. Would the standards, cracking down on failing schools, abolishing teacher tenure and curbing teacher unions shoe fall; or would the shoe fall with investment in helping teachers become more qualified and improve the profession of teaching. Or should we just throw a shoe at someone.
This week Mr. Arne Duncan, CEO of the Chicago Schools was chosen with typical Obama criteria for holistic executives. Mr. Duncan is a collaborator who both closed failing schools and worked well the Unions, and still plays a mean game of basketball.
US public K-12 education is an industry much larger than both the auto and banking industries combined with 4 million employees. Public schools are structured not to fail on a macro level, but can fail on child by child micro level. The system must be transformed without threat of total collapse; a tall order that goes against our current knowledge of innovation theory for large systems.
To paraphrase President-elect Barack Obama in his December 6th radio address. “To boost the sinking economy, government needs to invest in modernizing and upgrading school buildings, put computers in the classrooms and expand broadbandi [0] access to where all children can get online.” The broadband funding talked about is at the $5 billion level, or very roughly $100 per student.
This “Ed Tech” solution is all well and good at the one time $n billion level. But to transform requires an “eLearning” solution embracing Online, Hybrid, Virtual and 1 to 1 Classrooms. The tab to build and maintain an eLearningi [0] solution for all students – centered on developing eLearning savvy teachers and adopting effective digital curriculum is about $300 per student. The annual cost for 60 million students is $18 billion a year, a $nn billion solution year after year.
Considering the $nnn billion solutions for banking and auto business, I guess that K-12 education transform needs are just not shocking enough to garner national attention.