Dr. Pamela Cantor’s Questions to the Candidates published in SchoolBook

In advance of the second presidential debate in Election 2012, Dr. Pamela Cantor poses four questions in SchoolBook that each candidate should address about the future of our education system. Here is an excerpt:

“While the economy has been the central issue of this campaign, both candidates have largely ignored the 800-pound gorilla in the room: our schools are not turning out enough graduates ready to compete in a global workforce or lead the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs we need for sustained economic growth. A recent Council on Foreign Relations report argued that “large, under-educated swaths of the population damage the ability of the United States to physically defend itself, protect its secure information, conduct diplomacy, and grow its economy.”

Add to that the fact that nearly one in four children in the United States is now growing up in poverty and the obstacles to improving our education system multiply. Poverty presents challenges to education that most classrooms currently can’t handle. Our schools, even with tougher accountability, higher standards and competition, have neglected to confront the impact of poverty on learning, haven’t properly trained teachers to help students succeed, and instead have lowered expectations for what children can and should achieve.”

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