More than half of today’s grade-school children may be doing jobs that have not yet been invented. So why do Utah politicians keep putting more money in schools for a world that will no longer exist for our children?
Now, they will be debating about raising taxes for education, thinking money is the answer. Money is an answer to improving education, but unless policymakers understand how the world is changing, and the forces driving the change, it’s a waste. Unless policymakers realize the existing education organizational structure is outdated and designed for the industrial era, and in need of retooling for the digital economy, our children will lose out.
Yet lawmakers keep turning to the experts who know the old system rather than the world since 1985 in which today's children were born, children who have experienced different ways of learning, by searching, organizing and assimilating information from worldwide sources. So when experts say kids don’t know anything, it’s because experts don’t know what today’s kids know, according to Cathy N. Davidson, in her book “Now You See It.”
In 2013, Utah lawmakers formed the Legislature’s Education Task Force (SB169) to develop a long-term education policy for the state. Instead of looking to the future, they immediately turned to the experts and special interest groups — the same ones that created and benefit from the system — to tell them what needed to be done. Their first report recommended supporting more of the same programs with minor changes, creating a few new programs, and supporting more data sharing between education and Workforce Services. For example, the report calls for hiring more counselors even though there are free apps students and parents can access at home that help them to plan for their own future.
However, task force members did not take the time to study the kind of world our children will inherit and how to reform our education system to help them thrive in it. In the meantime, public education will continue to decline because of an outdated organizational structure that is rudderless and unable to respond to the challenge of the digital revolution. It seems irresponsible for lawmakers to keep putting money into a failing system. Lawmakers ought not spend more tax money until the system is renewed for the 21st century.
The renewing process starts with the Legislature supporting the state Board of Education in carrying out its constitutional mandate and declaring a one-year moratorium on lawmaking for education. The board then should create a new vision and mission for public education and resize and downsize Utah’s educational structure for today’s digital economy that promotes innovation and creativity by establishing outcome standards, transparency, accountability and bottom-up planning. Given the technology that now is changing exponentially, the opportunities are unlimited. It’s a new world, and the experts to look to just might be the generation raised on the World Wide Web.
Can you imagine students, with their parents, planning their educations with apps and taking their plans to school to help them become a reality? There is nothing more empowering than taking control over one’s education and future.
Utah native John Florez served on the U.S. Senate Labor Committee and as Utah industrial commissioner. His White House appointments included deputy assistant secretary of labor and Commission on Hispanic Education member. Email: jdflorez@comcast.net