AT&T Wants All That and a Box of Chocolate

Last week, AT&T’s CEO lamented his company’s inability to find enough skilled workers to fill the 5,000 jobs he promised to repatriate from India. The chief executive, Randall Stephenson, reportedly said he “is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent.”

He then attempts to validate his concern saying, “If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn’t put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down.”

Hmmmm. High school dropouts are defective products? That’s a bold, bordering on ridiculous, statement, given the number of millionaire and billionaire entrepreneurs that dropped out of school.

What’s worse is that he is blurring the contexts. His comments about the issues of dropout rates in the U.S. are real concerns. The underlying causes are cultural and political in nature. Often these rates contribute to or stem from our high rates of illiteracy, immaturity, teenage drug abuse and general lack of self-accountability necessary for developing a successful career.

That is not the problem AT&T is facing.

Stephenson wants to pay high-school graduate wages to college-educated engineers (not technicians, but engineers). Like he can do with workers in India.

Yes, our education system is a problem for many in our country. I’ve written about that problem before a couple of times recently. But don’t even try to equate that problem with the fact that someone wants highly-educated employees to work for wages far below what’s fair.

Sure, outsourcing to India has been a huge cost-saving measure for many companies. For the long-term, though, that’s not going to be good for business. Someone at AT&T apparently recognized that fact, since they promised to repatriate 5,000 jobs. Whining about the fact that comparably educated people here earn more isn’t going to help the cause.

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The Cost of Education

At the end of the school year, we are packing up and moving to Phoenix. My wife, the reason we are going, is heading out sooner to start a new job.

Last week, I was talking to our accountant about the move, and he asked about the education out there. Public education in Phoenix is actually pretty good. Something we’re not used to here in South Louisiana.

About 40 years ago, there was a major shift toward private and parochial schools away from public. I’m sure it had started before that, but the change was evident. Since then, standardized testing scores of those students have become some of the worst in the nation, the schools themselves aren’t safe and there is an enormous amount of waste.

Many might want to argue that the problems are because we don’t place a high enough priority on education, so we must not invest enough. Sadly that assumption isn’t true. The State of Louisiana spends $12,000 annually per child for public education. That is about the same as some of the private schools in the New Orleans area and about double a parochial high school tuition.

So I wonder why the cost is so high with so little benefit to the students. I’m sure some of it goes to security, including metal detectors and guards. And of course we have to pay for administrators, teachers and building maintenance. Oh yeah, the state superintendent of schools received a $50,000 raise this year, making him the highest paid in the Gulf Region—by more than double. The results still aren’t there. Maybe it’s an efficiency problem. How much waste is in the system? What changes can are possible to really put those dollars to work for the students?

Maybe it’s a scale problem. Perhaps there is so much overhead relative to the number of students that the cost per child is inflated. But without great results, that is unlikely to change. Parents that can afford to send their kids to other schools that demonstrate better outcomes are going to.

That’s not to say that all public school students are poor performers. Quite the contrary. We have a number of bright kids in those schools. But those kids are thriving in spite of the system, not because of it.

There are a few groups trying to make a difference. Hurricane Katrina was a bit of a blessing for the New Orleans public schools. Because of the damage and apathy on the part of the school board, charter schools were able to come in and rework a number of schools. Some of them are showing improvements. At the same time, though, the state board has just lowered the standard for the LEAP tests, the tests that measure the performance of fourth and eighth graders and allows them to advance.

I have my own crazy ideas for fixing education. People will mock most of them, I’m sure, which is fine if you have something better to offer. Here are some of my thoughts:

• Longer school days (9 – 5), with time set aside during the day for completing homework through mandated study hall
• Year-round schooling, giving students 2 – 3 weeks off about 4 times per year
• Subjects covered in relation to each other (what were the mathematical concepts that led to scientific discoveries and how did those affect history, literature, thoughts about religion, etc.)
• Coordinated education programs such that all states are required to meet the same benchmarks

This would be an enormous investment. Absolutely. But the payoff will be even bigger (see my earlier posts The Purpose of Education and Needed Wake-up Call?).

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