Checker writes at Forbes.com on the role that both quality and quantity must play in American education. To stay competitive, he argues, we must increase the number of high school and college graduates, while also improving the quality of K-12 education in our country:
Once upon a time, we could reply to critics that our education system made up in quantity whatever it lacked in quality. Back then, we graduated the world's largest fraction of young people from secondary school and sent them on to higher education. We had more college degrees in proportion to our population than any other major country. We also boasted more than our share of the world's most esteemed universities.The last of those claims is probably still true, though major strides are being made by India, China and other nations, including long-complacent Europe. But several other lands now surpass America in high school and college completion rates; their numbers are rising, while ours are flat.
We need to focus simultaneously on quality and quantity, not trade one off for the other. And doing this right means focusing simultaneously on K-12 and higher education, on ensuring that the former does better at preparing many more young people to succeed in the latter and that our colleges then erect a world-class structure on the foundation that the high schools have built. America can no longer afford to bestow a first-rate education on just a fraction of its population.
On a related note, check out the Center for College Affordability and Productivity's and Forbes' second annual college rankings.
