Lack of Skilled Workers Affecting U.S Companies

AT&T is experiencing first hand how the decline of our education system is wreaking havoc on job growth and the American economy. Chief Executive Randall Stephenson reported that AT&T is "having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India."

I've said this before, in today's high-tech global economy, American students will not just compete for jobs with their neighbors -- they will compete with students across the world.  Stephenson echoed this saying, "We're able to do new product engineering in Bangalore as easily as we're able to do it in Austin, Texas."

Our standards and our students' skills are too low to compete in the global marketplace. By the end of eighth grade, what passes for the U.S. math curriculum is two years behind the math being studied by eighth graders in other countries. Further, American 15 year-olds are significantly below average in math and science. Out of 30 countries we’re 25th in math and 21st in science.

America's outdated schools threaten our economic future. If the next President truly wants to boost America's economy, he or she must focus on reforming our schools.

We’ve got a problem and as Stephenson says, the solution is, "A stronger U.S focus on education."