If a well trained work force is part of what is needed for innovation, and if the US education system has a hard time training all of its students for global competition (minimum requirements: literacy, some math knowledge - you have to at least be able to read the instruction manual), it’s interesting to contemplate two urban school districts - DC which has taken to advertising to woo back students who have fled its schools - less than 50,000 students in 2009, and Detroit, which is contemplating going into bankruptcy after losing half of its students in the last eight years. Similar figures for other big cities. Charter schools are only part of the competition - people move to suburban schools with better performance.
Feb 13, 2012