Education legislation proposal in the USA:

All of us jointly reap
the results of a good education system, paid for by taxes, by having
children in our society who become contributing members of our society.
Today, the US is ranked 14th out 34 of the OECD countries for reading
skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics. This
is ridiculously unacceptable. We, as families and as a society and as a
nation, are failing our children and grandchildren and nation by not
making national education standards one of the highest priorities we
face today. These statistics put the future of our nation at risk of
continued local and global economic decline because our children will be
unable to compete in the new paradigm of a global interconnected
marketplace.

Education is the key. Most of our families have no
appreciation or understanding of the sciences and math and aren't
concerned about improving reading skills either, so are unable to pass
such knowledge onto their children. Nationally consistent educational
standards in the foundations of the applicable subjects and fields is
the only significant way to ensure the success of our nation in the long
term. Unless we get our act together, we will continue to see and
experience a decline educationally. We will continue to fall behind in
technological innovation, scientific advances, and ultimately our
economy will not be able to rebound because of a lack of a sound
educational base on which to build a prosperous future.

We need,
no, we must have, a national concerted effort to emphasize and encourage
our young people to pursue innovation and creativity in the sciences,
in math, technology, in nanosciences, in the biological sciences, in
information sciences and genetics, in studies in history and economics
and in readings skill. The foundations for the sciences and math and
reading needs to start in pre-school and continue through college to
guarantee that we are at least taking steps to improve educationally and
thus economically for the immediate and especially for the long term
grow, prosperity and success of our children and nation.

We must
work to remove all obstacles to the success of our children and nation,
and give them every advantage while encouraging exploration in thought
and ideas. One major disadvantage our children face is learning two or
three different foundational measuring systems and the respective
conversions between them. The metric system is the universal
foundational language of science, technology, and engineering, and is
simple and easy to learn. We should be teaching the metric system
exclusively in all our schools and not wasting time on teaching
conversions. Just teach the metric system. Do not bother with the other
measurement systems. The kids will learn it quickly, and the adults will
catch on once the only measurements they see are in metric units. Use
the commerce clause of the constitution to require all businesses that
do interstate business of any kind to use exclusively the metric system.
No conversion displays between Metric and English system should be used
because that just muddles the issue and delays implementation.
Converting to the metric system would be a step in the right direction
for the success of our nation and children.

We also do not need
to be wasting our time teaching pseudo-sciences in the science class
room. If we must teach biblical or quranic pseudo-science, then do so in
a religious studies or myth class. These things are not science no
matter how they are sugar coated.

Tim Williamson
globaleconomy101@gmail.com

 

Source: Wall Street Journal – http://goo.gl/6GYrk

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