U.S. Human Potential Can Be Developed, if We Make Up Our Minds

Forty years ago the GI Bill of Rights, one of the most inspired investments that this country ever made, furnished millions of returning veterans with their ticket to the future. In a very real sense it gave the nation its ticket to the future as well. The GI Bill paved the way to a college education for a high proportion of those who have been leaders in every domain of American life since the 1950s.

That amazing generation fought history’s most awesome conflict and returned to make America not only the most productive nation in history but also the one richest in opportunity for its people. The torch will soon pass to a new generation. Are we offering this generation and future generations the opportunities that they will need to take up the tasks of leadership?

Not according to a recent report by the Business-Higher Education Forum, a coalition of about 80 chief executives from leading American corporations, colleges and universities. The report, “American Potential: The Human Dimension,” which was prepared by a Forum task force cochaired by Don Petersen, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co., and Frank Rhodes, president of Cornell University, declares: “Inattention to our human-resource needs and the waste of human potential are eroding our national strength . . . . Our competitors, marshaling their human capabilities, are seizing world markets from us. We now face a situation in which the standard of living and quality of life we leave to our children may be less than our parents bequeathed to us.”

The nation does not lack ideas about how to bolster American competitiveness, the report concludes, or convincing evidence about the role that education must play in this endeavor and in nearly every other facet of life. But five years after the National Commission on Excellence in Education declared the United States “a nation at risk” because of the profound and pervasive problems of the schools--five years that have been marked by intensive national debate and discussion--the country is still struggling with what should be included on the reform agenda.

In preparing its report the forum reviewed 285 proposals contained in 20 major recent reports on education. Of 285 recommendations, only nine were supported by five or more of the 20 reports. Incredibly, more than 70% of the recommendations have “only a single champion.” To say that we lack a consensus about how to proceed would be to understate the reality of our situation.

Accordingly the forum has committed itself to seeking this consensus through a five-year effort to serve as a catalyst for further change and to build on the gains already made. The forum is urging that the nation undertake a thorough examination of the structure and policies governing education, with the goal of giving young people many more options to prepare them for life and work. For example, should public preschool education be available for all, beginning at age 4, considering the success of preschool programs like Head Start? Should more flexible approaches to learning and advancement through the grades be introduced in recognition of the growing diversity of our students and the lock-step system that they now confront? Can we make further gains in improving the preparation and compensation of America’s 2.5 million teachers?

Because learning goes on long after formal education is completed, the forum’s report also underscores the need to foster lifelong learning and to develop a more comprehensive training and retraining policy for the work force. It urges every governor, for instance, to promote partnerships between state and local governments and the private sector to improve the training programs that we have and institute such programs where they are needed. The forum also believes that local community colleges and technical institutes could be more effectively tapped as resources for designing and providing new training and retraining opportunities.

Because of the urgency of the problem, the forum has already asked President-elect George Bush to address this issue forcefully--through regional hearings or Cabinet-level task forces or a White House conference on human resources. The most important task is to make the development of human resources a national priority, just as the GI Bill reflected a national consensus to invest in the potential of our World War II and, later, our Korean and Vietnam veterans. Today, in the spirit of the GI Bill, we need a strong national consensus and a comparable national commitment to developing the nation’s rich human potential in all of its dimensions. As was true at the end of World War II, the nation today faces a sea-change in its economic, political, social and global circumstances. The changes are so great that it is no exaggeration to say that we live in a world in which education at all levels takes on a significance and a meaning without historical parallel. We were ready 40 years ago; will we be ready now? We’d better be.