We’re not #1? Go climb a tree! – January 15, 2015

We’re (not) #1!

Almost all students in the United Kingdom and Germany graduate high school (93% and 92%) but here in the U.S. we’re stuck at 77%.

The U.K. also has more students performing at an advanced level in science than in the U.S. (14% of eighth-graders vs. 10% of American ones).

By the age of 15, 17% tested in the lower end of reading ability. France has fewer kids struggling and even more kids performing at the highest level.

How do we know? The National Center for Education Statistics released a survey of education indicators among G20 nations. (G20 nations comprise 85% of the world’s economy and represents two-thirds of the world population.)  Get the details here.

Most of the time, all we really want to know is, Are we winning? The answer is, not yet.

But why not? That’s obviously a complicated question but we point to something that will surely help: Increasing access to Pre-K.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom has at least 90% of their 3 to 4 year olds enrolled in the equivalent of Pre-K. But here in good ole Pennsylvania, it’s only 26%.  Thankfully, the push for quality Pre-K is gaining momentum as evidenced by campaigns like Pre-K for PA.  Sign the Pre-K for PA petition.

Tree-climbing In A Dangerous Time

We all lose when politicians of either party try to divert attention away from the hot issues they fear.

This week, House Republicans took issue with Gov. Wolf’s allocation of more funds to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh school districts, calling those allocations disproportionate and unfair to other districts. (Ironically, had the legislature chosen to honor the bipartisan budget deal last year and done the required work to pass a fiscal code bill, as is their actual job, this issue would be moot.)

Whether you appreciate the rationale of restoring funding today to school districts that saw their budgets disproportionately slashed five years ago (i.e. Harrisburg making whole what it had previously torn), the issue of allocations is an important one and warrants careful consideration. But considering the Commonwealth’s debt-raising, bipartisan agreement-breaking, wholly humiliating budget crisis, this is a distraction we can’t afford.

Look, we’re desperate for good news here. We’ll take any activity as an indication that some in Harrisburg want to get back to work on behalf of the people of the Commonwealth. But that some politicians are fixated on climbing a tree as the surrounding forest is ablaze is discouraging. And considering that our politicians were the ones running around with matches, we all have cause to question their sense of accountability here.