One has to be living under a rock not to recognize that that education and jobs share a strong bond. As we look for ways to rebuild our economy and create new jobs, it is clear that reforming our K-12 education systems, ensuring all students have access to the knowledge and skills necessary to perform in our future economy, is a non-negotiable.
Over at National Journal’s Education Experts Blog, this is the question of the week. On those electronic pages, dear ol‘ Eduflack opines on both the need for education reform and our failures to address the skills gap we now have.
From National Journal:
It’s shameful that we can’t fill open jobs in an economy like this. And it is deplorable that one’s ability to get a strong public education depends, in large part, on race, family income, or zip code. We have no excuse for not preparing our kids, all of our kids, to meet the demands of a 21st century economy. Education is an economic development strategy – the best one that’s out there. We should be redoubling our efforts to ensure that policy makers see economic development and education as two sides of the same coin, and look to them to guide states, localities, and the nation toward meaningful reforms that will prepare all of our kids for college, career, and a productive life.
Happy reading!
Eduflack By Patrick R. Riccards 
Some “communication:” 100% in disagreement. The expose of Apple shows what’s really going on. It’s not that there aren’t enough qualified people to fill jobs. It’s that qualified people in the US won’t work for peanuts, live in a dorm, and put up with 70 hour work weeks. If you look at those zip codes where kids don’t perform in school you’ll find communities with high poverty, low levels of social services, no health care, high crime, and shabby housing. Those are all in the control of policy makers, not schools. The issues of poverty translates to 2/3rds of school achievement. The US has the second highest level of child poverty of all industrialized nations. This is shameful.