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Business and Education: How They Can Help One Another
| Article
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19576 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1991 |
3,359 Words |
| Author
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Linus Wright
Linus Wright is a former undersecretary of the U.S.
Department of Education. From 1978 to 1987, he was
superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District.
Since 1989 he has served as president and chief executive
officer of Ideal Learning, Inc., an educational computer
software company located in Irving, Texas. |
Out of the 1980s came a consensus on at least three propositions important to the future of our nation's schools: (1) American education has a problem, (2) American business has a problem, and (3) the two problems are related. Precisely how we are going to solve these problems is still a subject of widespread national debate, but just about everyone believes business should be more actively involved in education. There is less agreement on precisely how and to what degree.
A careful reading of the current dialogue between the educational establishment and the business community reveals that while both have a vested interest in a long-term, cooperative partnership, they may encounter problems in defining the specific terms of their relationship. On the one hand, too many educators would like to have the substantial funding that business can supply while maintaining essentially the same system now in place, a system that isn't getting the job done. On the other hand, some business leaders are under the impression that education, with its own unique and long-standing traditions, is just one more production line waiting to be whipped into shape by applying the latest management techniques.
Both of these views fail to take into consideration the scope and complexity of the problem. Both partners in any future cooperative venture must have greater respect for one another. They must face up to what Nan Stone in the Harvard Business Review has described as "two often unexamined assumptions in the ongoing debates about the public schools. The first is that schools are the problem and business the solution. The second is that school is school and work is work."
President Bush and Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander clearly see the necessity for business to play a major role in the reform of our schools; and in their AMERICA 2000 strategy, they count on business to raise $150 million to fund educational research and development in order to create models for states and local communities to use in reinventing their schools. This is the kind of project that appeals to the business community--and particularly to high-tech manufacturers who compete in the global marketplace. They are great believers in research and development and will probably help the president get what he wants in the way of private-sector funding. In the end, however, unless the educational establishment makes use of these new models, the results may not be quite so dramatic in our schools as they have been in the business community, where new technologies, better quality control, and innovative marketing techniques have helped some major American corporations
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