WASHINGTON – There was a time when the United States led the world in almost every social and economic sector from education to industry. Today, that is no longer true, and several nations have surpassed the U.S. in having the highest rate of college graduates in the workforce. As a result, President Barack Obama has issued a challenge to the nation to regain its former leadership status by producing the world’s largest share of college graduates by 2020.
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, along with expert panelists, offered their perspectives on how best to achieve that goal during a policy forum titled “The 2020 Imperative: College Attainment and US Workforce Development,” hosted by DeVry University on Tuesday.
“As a nation, we need every segment of the education system getting better and holding itself accountable for results,” said Duncan, who delivered brief remarks at the event. “It starts with parents taking more responsibility from the time their children are born and includes our agenda to boost equality of early learning programs. It continues with our K-12 system, where we are working hard on so many fronts to make sure that students are ready for college and careers.”
Duncan said that, in addition to a push for stronger teachers, the administration also is challenging states and districts to adopt higher standards, better assessments and more rigorous curriculums. He noted that 40 percent of students who enroll in college need to take remedial courses and 75 percent of community college students never graduate. Further, employers are saying that they want to see greater emphasis on written and oral communication skills, science and technology, cross-cultural competence, and other skills as well as curriculums that will support green jobs.
“We have to get higher education out of the remediation education business,” he said. “We need to build a college-going culture in our high schools so that every incoming ninth-grader is already planning his or her future.”
The Secretary expressed support for the role that for-profit higher education institutions, such as DeVry, are seeking to play in helping achieve the 2020 goal. In recent years, for-profit institutions have come under heavy criticism for their low graduation rates and high levels of debt undertaken by their students. More recently, national news media, including the New York Times and the PBS Frontline news documentary series, have scrutinized for-profit schools and their practices.
“For-profit institutions play a vital role in training young people and adults for jobs,” Duncan said, noting that a few schools have acted improperly.
