It has been said that the American education system is the great equalizer. This implies that anyone can benefit from a “free” education system.
To quote the Illinois State Constitution:
“A fundamental goal of the People of the State is the educational development of all persons to the limits of their capacities. The State shall provide for an efficient system of high quality public educational institutions and services. Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free.”
While this is an admirable goal, I think a couple of things might need to be discussed. As the old saying goes, nothing is free—not even a public education.
As we know out in the collar counties, most of the “free” public education funding comes from local property taxes with a small minority of funding coming from the state. This reflects the relative “wealth” of a county such as DuPage County. Sometimes we are punished for success!
But as we also know, “wealth” isn’t uniform in communities or school districts. So some school districts in Illinois have more and unfortunately some communities have less. Some would argue that the quality of the education you receive in Illinois is a function of where you were born and raised. So the Illinois educational system might be a little uneven in this regard.
As we know from the public accountability reporting on school and school district performance in Illinois, academic performance is also uneven across Illinois. We can all argue about why that is the case but it is obviously a combination of parents, teachers and students that can, and should make a difference in educating children.
Some schools do it better than others. In fact, the performance gap even becomes wider when we compare ourselves internationally, so it might not just be a few underperforming Illinois schools, it might be an underperforming American education system.
The second issue is about the quality of the education you receive. It doesn’t really matter if something is free if it isn’t meeting my needs. As I told my three grown children, education, or going to school, was not an occupation. You ultimately must go out in the real world and apply that education to become a productive citizen in this democracy.
So the linkage between “learning” and “earning” is even more important today than ever. And therein lays an area for improvement that needs the attention, involvement and investment of the business community.
We are very fortunate in this region to have many schools that have reached out to the business community and created productive and meaningful business/education partnerships. We have more of these formal partnerships than many regions of the entire country. But, we need more.
Every student is entitled to a “free” and relevant education, “relevant” meaning that it translates into meaningful employment and to becoming a productive citizen. Every student should be exposed to real world learning opportunities that complement and strengthen the curriculum being taught in the classroom.
If done correctly, it might help answer the question, “Why do I have to learn this?” Any business/education partnership activity should be judged by one criterion only: how is this improving student learning? If it isn’t, you probably should stop doing it.
My hat is off to the hundreds of (Naperville Area) Chamber businesses that are engaged in business/education partnerships. The business community has a responsibility to help in educating students for their workforce needs. Sitting back and criticizing isn’t sufficient. Great leadership requires that the business community also be accountable. Perhaps the federal legislation should be re-labeled, “No Business Left Behind.”
Mike Skarr is president and CEO of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce. This column originally appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of ”Commerce,” the magazine of the Chamber. Contact Skarr at mskarr@naperville.net or at 630-355-4141.