Failure to improve the U.S. educational system could saddle America's economy with "enormous long-term costs," the congressional Joint Economic Committee said Tuesday in its first bipartisan report since 1980.
America is falling behind the rest of the world in promoting literacy and job skills even though it already spends more money per student than any other country in the world, the committee said.While the panel did not break any new ground in recommending solutions to education problems or others facing the economy, it was able for the first time in nine years to issue a bipartisan report, supported by both Democrats and Republicans on the 20-member committee.
During the Reagan years, the panel of senators and House members became a battleground of warring economic ideologies with Democrats and Republicans unable to reach any common ground.
Members of the panel gave credit for the show of unity to Rep. Lee Hamilton, the new chairman of the committee. Hamilton had pushed hard for a joint report as the proper congressional response to President Bush's calls for a bipartisan effort to address the huge federal budget deficit and the country's other economic problems.
Hamilton, D-Ind., said members of the committee agreed that the most crucial thing Congress and the administration need to do is address the federal budget deficit.
"Realistic and prudent budgeting should be our top economic priority," Hamilton said.
The report, however, did not provide any specifics on how the gap between revenues and spending should be narrowed.
On education, the report cited statistics showing that the country has an overall dropout rate of 25 percent, with rates for blacks hitting 40 percent and for Hispanics exceeding 50 percent. Partly as a result, approximately 13 percent of 17-year-old Americans cannot read, write or count, the report said.
The committee said "education is perhaps the most prominent area where our nation's shortcomings threaten to impose enormous long-term costs."