The Public Policy Institute of California (motto: "Informing and improving public policy through independent, objective, nonpartisan research") recently published a report titled, "Educating California: Choices For the Future."
Written by PPIC Associate Director Hans Johnson, the report lays out a straightforward vision -- complete with colorful bar graphs and easy-to-read double-spaced, sans serif text -- of the Golden State's golden years being behind us if California doesn't quickly begin doing a better of job of educating K-12 graders.
Part of the issue is demographics, Johnson writes, with baby boomers set to retire and a predicted shortage of highly educated workers due by 2025. Another key topic: high high school dropout rates.
"In the near future," the report states, "California will have too few college-educated workers and too many less-educated adults."
Far from wonkish, Johnson's text intends to point out a coming potential crisis, not to offer up micro-solutions. For example, at least by TTLA's reading, the PPIC doesn't offer up specific legislative funding solutions. But the dire generalities, even couched in occasional equivocations (a "could" here, a question mark after a seemingly declarative statment there), are vital.
"Shortchanging education for quick budget fixes," the text concludes, "is a short-sighted approach that could seriously undermine California's economic future."
A .PDF download of the report is available here.
Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user Bredgur. It was used under Creative Commonslicense.
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This study seems to indicate that the primary problem in the California educational system is not the large volumes of high school dropouts, as Jeremy implies, but, more specifically, the threat of having "too few college-educated workers" in the state workforce.
With our state school system being pushed to the brink by an ever increasing number of students and a budget that that falls short (to say the least), I am left wondering whether our tax dollars would be better invested in our children or our college undergraduates. Off the top of my head, I have to admit that I have no idea.
I think it would be smarter to invest in the k-12 system instead of college undergrads. Unless these kids are taught to read in their own grade level, then how can we expect them to attend college? If people don't expect them to succeed then investing only on college undergraduates opens up the possibility of giving more money to students who came from high schools that were not struggling financially and had up-to-date books.