Businesses Can Help America’s Education Crisis. Here’s How

American education faces a crisis. Making college free and helping students acquire short-term credentials might help. But in a rapidly changing workforce, where the premium on higher levels of education and adaptability skills is only increasing, these approaches won’t be nearly comprehensive enough to address the core problem. More Americans need the education and skills for the 21st-century economy.

For one, college enrollment is in decline. Just last semester, 60% of U.S. colleges failed to meet their enrollment goals. Juxtapose this against the fact that roughly 90% of the high-paying jobs in today and tomorrow’s economy require postsecondary degrees, according to Georgetown University labor economist Anthony Carnevale, while wages for those only requiring a high school diploma are stagnant or in decline.

The pipeline to college faces a problem. Elementary and secondary schools have serious problems with teacher recruitment and retention. States such as Illinois and Michigan have seen over a 50% decline in those who complete a teacher preparation program, according to the Education Commission of the States. Couple that with yearly rates of teachers leaving the profession exceeding 15% on average—and greater numbers in high-poverty schools—and the problem magnifies. That’s before even addressing the need for higher-quality teaching to enhance student achievement.

Higher-education institutions have a completion crisis, too. Since 2011, the total number of students in U.S. colleges and universities has fallen by 2.3 million, and those who remain are having a harder time completing. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, in 2019, only six in ten students completed a two- or four-year degree six years after high school; black student completion is half that. In community colleges, on-time completion rates for low-income students of color are in the single digits, with far too many taking non-credit-bearing remedial courses, which can cost the nation over $5 billion a year.

Increased public support is one answer to these problems, but any major new programs will compete for funding with health care and the environment. And spending alone absent innovation and a clear focus might disappoint. The good news is that potentially exciting data-driven solutions are available in the private sector. American businesses have good incentives to help: They are significantly impacted by troubled education performance. And, while the private sector is not fully to blame for income inequality, it can act to address it with a focus on improving education performance though meaningful public-private partnerships.

Here are three practical solutions businesses can act on now.

First, increase the pool of teachers by encouraging and supporting employees who seek an “encore career” through a transition into a teaching. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 1.6 million people over 55 in the tech sector alone. Survey data show many of them are interested in a second career. At IBM, a pilot program to both help employees transition out of the workforce and assist schools in finding top talent enabled 100 employees to become classroom teachers. For programs like this, the private sector and government can share the modest cost of teacher-education courses and time off for practice teaching. Extrapolating the IBM success across Fortune 500 companies, as many as 50,000 teachers a year, many with strong math and science backgrounds, could be recruited.

Second, in many school systems declining enrollment has left far too many buildings half-occupied and at risk of closure. Instead of bearing the cost of closing such schools, vacant space—which can be expensive to rent in cities like Chicago—can be used as “maker space.” Programs like this could offer significant benefits by locating private-sector innovators in schools in exchange for their agreement to mentor teachers and students and to provide job opportunities for parents. Similarly, not-for-profit organizations might also be located in vacant school space, providing guidance and support for students in exchange for free and reduced-cost space.

Third, at the higher-education level, public-private partnerships can step in to address enrollment decline. According to the Urban Institute and ProPublica, the majority of those over 50 are at risk of losing their jobs due to a lack of education and skills. Their research, based on a survey of 20,000 individuals, demonstrates that only one in ten of those workers who lose their jobs will go on to earn a wage anywhere close to what they had once earned. This population of nontraditionally employed workers could be attracted to higher education. With a cost-sharing arrangement between the public and private sectors, customized skills enhancement could be provided, much of it online, to hundreds of thousands of such nontraditional worker-students a year. For employers, this would eliminate both the cost of hiring and training replacement workers at higher wages and the added cost of laying off workers. And everyone would realize the benefit of enhanced tax revenue from more employees working longer and at higher wages.

Funding to make college more affordable should be on the agenda, too. Both Pell grants and federal work-study programs should be expanded, as should career and technical education and innovative programs like the grade 9 to 14 model called P-TECH. Creative solutions from businesses are not just necessary but essential. There will never be a better time to act. 

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Left-wing professors in Britain getting rattled

Academics are issuing warnings about a UK organisation that is calling on students to report lecturers’ “political bias” for publication on its website. “Education Watch” is based on a US site that lists lecturers who have advanced what it calls “leftist propaganda”. Academics in the US have faced threats of death, rape and harm to their children after being singled out by “Professor Watchlist”.

Education Watch, on the website of Turning Point UK, was launched last month by the British arm of Turning Point USA, an organisation seen as Trump’s youth wing. Turning Point UK was given messages of support from MPs such as Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel.

Education Watch, it says, is a tool for UK students to report lecturers for “leftwing bias”, which it claims universities are “overrun” with.

The website says any naming and shaming will be on a “case-by-case basis”. “So far, we are simply documenting the incidents without naming the teachers, though we may sometimes name the university or the school. However, if some incidents are serious enough, we may decide it is necessary to publicly name the individuals involved. This would not be our default approach, however – unlike in the US.”

But academics in Britain say that encouraging students to provide evidence of bias is highly dangerous.

“This is populist rightwing propaganda, encouraging the false idea that there are evil professors out there, indoctrinating young people, who need to be dealt with,” says Eric Lybeck, presidential academic fellow at Manchester University’s Institute of Education and a member of the Council for the Defence of British Education, who has been researching the organisation. “Turning Point UK and Education Watch have been transplanted to the UK very intentionally by rightwing groups in the US. They are pretending to be a student organisation, but they are not a grassroots organisation at all.”

One US academic who received a death threat says: “It is ridiculous that I have this additional threat in my life because of this, that I have to worry if my kids are safe. This is someone using their money to increase the chances of a hate crime against certain individuals.”

Hans-Joerg Tiede, of the American Association of University Professors, has been cataloguing the often “traumatic” impact on individuals of being on the Professor Watchlist and a similar site called Campus Reform, for four years. He says many academics – especially women – have received threats of murder and sexual assault or attacks on their children, via social media or email.

In two cases universities had to close for the day because of the perceived risk to staff and students.

Tiede says one professor was put on the list for a book chapter on how to teach maths in a way that works better for black and minority ethnic children. “She was inundated with death threats. She was Jewish and received antisemitic threats and threats of sexual assault. Instances like that are happening with some regularity,” he says.

Betsey Stevenson, associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, is at the top of the Professor Watchlist, and has been on it for two years. Stevenson worked in the Obama administration, but was listed on the site for some fact-based research on the gender distribution of examples in economics textbooks, arguing that this might be putting girls off the subject.

“If this was a student-led organisation you’d see the Watchlist highlighting the furthest left views, but that’s not what you see. This is such a random, scattergun list. It’s obvious it doesn’t come from inside universities.”

She adds: “UK academics should be cynical about this. There is no good intention here.”

Anthea Butler, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, says she received death threats. “Sites like this are trying to control the narrative. They want to paint university education as being inherently liberal and evil.”

She adds: “I would say to UK academics, be careful about who might be trolling your Twitter feeds, and be careful when talking about issues like race or gender.”

Anthony Zenkus, a lecturer in social work at Columbia University, is on the Professor Watchlist for a tweet criticising capitalism. At first he thought the posting was silly, but now feels it is “insidious”. “The term watchlist is loaded. They are preying on fear, implying these ideas are dangerous.”

Turning Point UK was set up last year by George Farmer, a Tory donor and son of a Conservative peer, who stood as an MEP for the Brexit party.

The Guardian reported on the group’s apparent links to the far-right in February 2019. Farmer has since deleted all tweets on his Twitter account, in which he had called Jeremy Corbyn “Jew-hating Jeremy” and London mayor, Sadiq Khan a “Grade A twat”.

Last August Farmer married Candace Owens, an ultra-conservative activist, who until last year was communications director of Turning Point USA.

Like its American counterpart, Turning Point UK does not reveal its donors. Membership charges are in dollars, and in a tweet last week it thanked “our friend and ally” Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, for helping to establish the UK organisation.

On the website it describes itself as a “grassroots organisation” educating students about free markets, limited government and personal responsibility. There is also merchandise: for £12.68 you can buy a Nigel Farage T-shirt. So far no lecturers have been named on Education Watch UK, but a message on the website says: “We have received many reports of political bias in our education system. We will publish the examples we receive here.”

It also says: “There is a reason why people are getting nervous about this – as they should be. We are finally doing something, with the very small and limited resources we have, to actually push back against the leftist tyranny on campuses that is being pushed down people’s throats.”

Lybeck describes this as “an invented culture war”. “This is just crowdsourcing McCarthyism. In the US they have created this idea that there is this intellectual elite that disdains America and doesn’t share its values. I think if people want to use that playbook here it will be harder. But the money is there and they are trying.”

Prof David Green, vice-chancellor of Worcester University, says academics are right to be fearful. “This is part of a wider movement that could be highly dangerous. It is a rightwing, populist, anti-education offensive and it has important allies at the highest parts of government both here and in America.”

Tanja Bueltmann, professor of history at Northumbria University and one of many academics who has expressed dismay at the launch of Education Watch, says: “It doesn’t matter if it comes from right or left – we don’t want a system of vigilantism.”

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CATHOLIC schools across Australia have committed to extending school fee relief for families facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic

National Catholic Education executive director Jacinta Collins said Catholic schools have a long tradition of offering school fee relief and assistance to families facing financial difficulties.

“Catholic schools keep their fees as affordable as possible, but we know many families will be facing serious financial difficulties during this challenging time,” Ms Collins said.

“In each state and territory we are looking at ways to expand on the substantial fee relief arrangements already in place, to ease the financial strain on families, and to determine appropriate measures to best support the needs of families across the country.

“We saw recently through the bushfire season and ongoing drought, that some families are more affected than others, so we need to ensure that the right support and assistance goes to where it is most needed,” she said.

Queensland Catholic Education Commission’s executive director Dr Lee-Anne Perry urged families to come forward.

“Catholic schools are acutely aware of the hardships being experienced right across the community and are doing all they can to facilitate the ongoing education of all students,” Dr Perry said.

“I urge any family facing difficulty with tuition fees to contact their school to discuss their situation.”

Ms Collins said financial relief is immediately available to families impacted by the pandemic.

“If families are affected by job losses, business closures or other impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we urge them to speak to their school as quickly as possible, to get immediate relief and determine the level of assistance needed ,” she said.

“We appreciate how difficult it is for parents to come forward with financial concerns, but our schools will ensure each case is handled with care and discretion.

“We understand that many families are already under great pressure and strain, and we do not want them to be further burdened by school fee payments.”

In South Australia, families in Catholic diocesan schools who have lost significant income due to COVID-19 will receive a total school fee remission effective immediately, for an initial period of three months.

Catholic Education South Australia director Dr Neil McGoran said for the state’s regional and rural communities, the COVID-19 pandemic comes amidst a range of other challenges such as bushfires, drought, loss of key industries and increasing unemployment.

“Amongst all the worries that we have at this time – worrying about the payment of school fees should not be one of those things,” Dr McGoran said.

“All Catholic schools in SA are providing fee remissions to families financially impacted by COVID-19 and we will continue to monitor and respond to the impact on our families and our schools.”

Catholic Schools New South Wales chief executive officer Dallas McInerney said it was critical for families in the state’s nearly 600 schools to have certainty.

“Now, more than ever, our families need certainty and support,” Mr McInerney said.

“Catholic Schools NSW is actively considering how best to financially support our families at this time.”

“We are firmly of the view that no child should miss out on a Catholic education because of financial stress; this includes families seeking enrolment for their children for the 2021 school year.”

Helping education: “All Catholic schools in SA are providing fee remissions to families financially impacted by COVID-19 and we will continue to monitor and respond to the impact on our families and our schools.” Photo: Flickr.
In Western Australia, Catholic schools families on a health care card will receive automatic fee concessions, and immediate support would also be available for those who do not qualify for a health care card.

“The health care card discount applies to all year levels from Kindergarten to Year 12, and additional financial considerations are also available depending on each family’s circumstance,” said Catholic Education Western Australia executive director Dr Debra Sayce.

“For parents who do not qualify for the health care card discount, but who are experiencing financial difficulties, arrangements can be made to provide immediate support to assist with tuition costs.”

Ms Collins said Catholic schools would offer a blend of onsite and remote learning arrangements next term.

“Subject to government advice, we anticipate that, by Term 2, Catholic schools will be offering a combination of onsite schooling for the children of essential service workers and remote learning for students at home.”

Nationally, Catholic schools educate more than 764,000 students – or one in five Australian students – in 1,746 schools, the vast majority of which are low-fee schools.

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