The Obama education speech must be a rallying cry for those people living in the "greatest nation" in the world. Given that U.S. has begun losing its competitive position to countries which put education first, it's unlikely that U.S. may possibly continue to be the nation to which other countries aspire.Consider some sobering facts. The U.S. lags behind a number of other countries in education in line with the number of hours spent in school. For instance, in U.S. schools elementary students access it average 183 days of education. Far away, such as Korea, Japan and Singapore, for starters, students are in school typically 243 days. That's a 40% increase within the United States! It's no wonder many of these students are thought "overachievers."I live in the "wonderful" state of California, which by many measures isn't too wonderful anymore. With unemployment over 10%, their state is almost bankrupt and we possess a governor who approved $1.8 Billion in cuts toward education. And, that's simply for the 2009. Another $4 Billion is anticipated to be cut from the 2010 education budget!The Obama education speech should hit a nerve in most Americans and it should hammer inside a point to us Californians. I recently read articles by Tom Elias who reports how the dropout rate in California is all about 33%. Thirty three percent. Which means one in three kids will drop from high school before they graduate. He procedes point out that this is one of the reasons that California corporations oftentimes go offshore to locate skilled labor and leave the reduced paying, unskilled jobs towards the rest. I don't necessarily trust that belief, but it is pretty disgraceful to consider that one of the "wealthiest states" in the "greatest nation" has fallen for this level.The Obama education speech addresses an even more sinister issue at stake for that United State. Education has been shown to be a program that lifts people from poverty. Most third world countries have numerous other problems, including war, blight, and starvation. Education is paramount to turning these problems around giving the people the tools in which to raise their living standards.This insufficient education support here in the U.S. puts our society in a disadvantage to those countries that was previously third world countries. They have went through cycle of war and poverty developed the amount systems and created employable workers, in addition to jobs. These same employable workers are now increasingly mobile, that is additional worry for us Americans. Technology has lowered the barrier to a lot of jobs as it allows workers to be used across the world.If the Obama education speech didn't get you incensed about our lackluster education performance, it will. Because not only are we losing jobs to raised skilled, better trained, off-shore workers, we're developing a negative legacy for our children. We'll have left them with a society that's less "well-off" than the generation before them. This, interestingly, may be the first time ever in American history. I do not think that this is how we want history to become written about our generation.
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