Michael Parekh provides a great summary of a early 2005 speech by Bill Gates to the National Education Summit on High Schools:
Let me translate Mr. Gates’s words: “If we don’t fix American education, I will not be able to hire your kids.” I consider that, well, kind of important. Alas, the media squeezed a few mentions of it between breaks in the Michael Jackson trial. But neither Tom DeLay nor Bill Frist called a late-night session of Congress - or even a daytime one - to discuss what Mr. Gates was saying. They were too busy pandering to those Americans who don’t even believe in evolution.
Sadly this is brutally true. When the big questions in the American Media and the Presidency are about teaching evolution and reducing violence in the schools, we are failing as a nation to prepare the next generation. The choices that remain for a responsible parent are not pretty. Either pay for private schools or home school to escape the current failing education system. This leaves millions of familes without options for preparing their children for a provductive future that does not involve selling beer at the baseball game. We should frame any discussion about education policy more around preparation and less around pandering to special interests.
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