My most recent posts – about innovation in the US – really hit some people’s hot button. A near universal anger focused on what should be a small and minimally controversial element in the Rx for making the US economy more innovative: Improving the quality and availability of education in the US.
I was surprised by the near universal disdain for our schools because of ‘lazy and incompetent teachers’ and the near universal anger at ‘throwing more money at the problem.’
There certainly are lazy and incompetent teachers in the system, and we need better ways to deal with them (just as we need better ways to police medical malpractice than the currrent system of professional non-oversight and lack of legal review of incompetent and negligent doctors). But to suggest (as some readers did) that the solution is to do away with teachers’ unions or to abandon public education is political rhetoric disconnected from rationality.
Of course, education alone will not solve the problem of innovation in the US; far less will it single-handedly create millions of new middle class jobs. But a quality education, available to all Amaericans, if a vital piece of the foundation.
Tags: education, innovation
