""World Class." It's a perplexing term favored by promoters and politicians as well as those with genuine aspirations for Kentucky's future. But what does it mean, really?
If we agree that the definition of "World Class" is an ability to engage successfully (and perhaps gracefully as well) in global competition and that an educated and skilled workforce is the key to such performance, then what are we to make of the following information about Kentucky's educational preparations to establish such a competitive posture?
Our latest ranking, in a January 3 report by Education Week, tracking state efforts to connect education from preschool through postsecondary education, was a placement of 41st among the 50 states.
How much longer can we accept and perpetuate such lackluster academic performance? How much longer do you want to spend a moment of your time apologizing for and defending these rankings?
Other states, regions and nations are well ahead of us in making very aggressive pursuits of excellence. They are placing particular emphasis on the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). We understand that truly revolutionary improvement in these disciplines in Kentucky would require measures that exceed our state's miserly fiscal limitations. But if Kentucky's consistent ranking near the bottom of the good lists and close to the top of the bad ones is to change for the better, we are going to have to re-order our priorities. Cheap land, electricity and labor are not, themselves, the key enticements to industries that rely heavily on brains, skill and talent.
It would be easy to single out for blame a legislative culture in which a prevailing weakness for the political expedient has trumped courageous fiscal policy. At the recent annual dinner of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, however, each and every one of our legislative leaders stated emphatically that education must top the short list of legislative priorities. On this they agreed. On how to achieve this, they differed significantly.
Instead of finger pointing, it seemed more productive to distill the status of Kentucky's educational performance down to the clear and easily absorbed message of the statistics presented on this page. The message is this: the nature of the economy long ago made a profound course change, and we have failed to keep pace.
Acknowledgment of these shortcomings, however, is only half the battle. We are going to have to accept that we can no longer afford the high cost of cheap. If we want "World Class" status among American states, we have to be willing to figure out how we are going to pay the price of acquiring it. If the rhetoric of those legislative leaders is any indication, our choices are exceedingly few: raise taxes or accept expanded gaming as our salvation with the lion's share of tax revenues earmarked for education.
In future editions, I will report to you on the progress of the state's new STEM Task Force. Chaired by UK President Lee Todd, this group of 105 individuals from across Kentucky is drawn from government, education, both houses of the state legislature, professionals within the STEM disciplines, the business community and entrepreneurs. Full disclosure: I am a participant. Our mission is to develop a strategic action plan to accelerate Kentucky's performance within the STEM disciplines.
Judging by our initial meeting in December, success is entirely possible.
But there is a catch.
I hope that you share our alarm. This is all about our present and future. It is very real and success, or failure, carries personal consequences for each and every one of us. I hope that in conversation with your friends, associates and neighbors, you will encourage engagement in all efforts to shoulder Kentucky into a new era that, finally, is free of the shackles of the "no can do" psyche that so pervades our culture.
Only when all of us are ready to accept that it is essential to our well-being that our educational climate improve — and that each of us has a personal a stake in such progress — will we feel comfortable about the credibility and legitimacy of a statement linking the terms "Kentucky" and "World Class."
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