U.S. Needs to Manufacture Better Education

By Robert J. Martin

Published by Business First in the April 21-27, 2006 issue

The future of the U.S. depends on our ability to compete in global markets using creativity and innovation to develop differentiated products and services.

Differentiation depends on the customer’s appreciation for the additional value provided by a unique product or service, and it is needed because the high costs of U.S. manufacturing inhibit us from competing in low-cost, commodity markets.

The key to creativity and innovation is an educated workforce. Ireland and India are countries that are rapidly increasing their global competitiveness and standards of living through investments in education.

Conversely, China’s recent development is based on its low-cost labor, highly structured government policies and an entrepreneurial spirit. However, China, realizing the importance of education to its long-term economic success, is heavily investing in education emphasizing science and technology.

Most Americans feel that the U.S. is well positioned to compete using its creativity and innovation. Our personal freedoms and capitalism strongly support creativity and innovation, but education is another matter. As many as 20 percent of Americans are functionally illiterate, and our high school math and science achievement test scores rank near the bottom of industrialized nations.

Creativity and innovation are not reserved for the intellectual elite. Everyone needs to be educated to contribute to our global competitiveness, but many Americans are receiving less than a basic education.

The high school graduation rate and achievement scores of urban public school students are abysmal compared to our better suburban schools. This is a great concern, because there will be few employment opportunities for poorly educated Americans in the future.

U.S. manufacturing, once a haven for the poorly educated, will become increasingly high tech as low-value-added labor is replaced by technology. Though manufacturing employment will continue to decrease as productivity rises, the workers in this future, worker-friendly environment will need strong skills in the “three Rs” (reading, writing and arithmetic) as well as more modern skills in communication, teamwork, computers and creative thinking. Modern manufacturing will require more mind than muscle.

Few U.S. college graduates receive technical degrees. As a culture, we seem to value law or political science more than engineering or science, but we need engineers and scientists to compete in an increasing technological world. Our technical competence needs to be deeper than programming a VCR or sending text messages on a cell phone.

We need workers capable of applying creative and innovative thought to underlying technical and scientific principles, and we need more of them.

The U.S. has the best technical colleges and universities in the world, but many of our engineering graduate students are foreigners. Foreigners value our technical education. Soon China will graduate ten times (and India five times) more engineers and scientists than the U.S. We are being left behind.

Preparation for a technical career starts with strong math and science programs in elementary school and builds on that foundation in high school. Without that background a student has little hope for success in a college engineering or science program.

The educational deficiencies of many of our elementary and high school students excludes large numbers of Americans from technical careers or even entry level positions in manufacturing.

Our schools are failing to provide even the basic education for some students. This forces many companies to teach reading and math to their employees, creating additional costs that exacerbate their non-competitiveness.

We need to address the root cause of the deficiencies in U.S. educational achievement and stimulate enrollment in science and engineering if we hope to successfully compete in the global marketplace. Our people are our greatest competitive asset. We cannot afford to waste them.