Bernie Sanders Breaks Down The Key Failures Of Current State Of U.S. Education

Forbes Breaking News

At Wednesday's Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) decried the state of education in the U.S.

Transcript

00:00Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and let me thank all of our guests for being here

00:06to discuss a very important subject. Needless to say, Mr. Chairman, you and I look at this

00:11world a little bit differently regarding this subject. In my view, in a highly competitive

00:19global economy, in an economy where technology is changing the very nature of work and the jobs

00:26we perform, if we are going to have the kind of standard of living that the American people

00:33deserve, we need the best educated workforce in the world. And I would trust there is not

00:40a lot of debate about the importance of that. Sadly, that is not the case today. Our nation

00:48used to lead the world in the percentage of adults with a college degree. We were number

00:55one. Today, despite being the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, we are in 11th

01:04place in terms of the percentage of adults with a college degree. We are now behind countries

01:11like Japan, South Korea, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and Switzerland,

01:16among others. Being 11th in a competitive global economy in the number of our people who have

01:25college degrees is not a good place to be. Mr. Chairman, we not only must we strive to have

01:32the strongest economy in the world, we also need an economy and an educational system which

01:39provides for the basic necessities of life for the American people. Yet today, in our country,

01:46we have an understaffed workforce, something which this committee has discussed, which has

01:52led us to massive shortages of doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, mental health counselors,

02:02and psychologists. So we are living in a country where, in terms of health care, we are not

02:09able to even provide the kind of care that our people need. And that is one of the failures

02:15of our educational system. Further, at a time when we face major infrastructural challenges,

02:22and when we need to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel in order to save this planet

02:29from the ravages of climate change, we don't have enough engineers, construction workers,

02:35plumbers, pipe fitters, sheet metal workers, and electricians, because we have not made

02:40apprenticeship programs and trade schools widely available. Moreover, Mr. Chairman, I happen

02:47to be a strong believer in lifelong learning. Learning is not just the means to getting a good job.

02:54As human beings, from two to 102, people strive to learn. It's part of what being human is about.

03:02And we should make that opportunity available to all.

03:06Mr. Chairman, in the early part of the 19th century, not only did low-income and working-class

03:12kids not have the opportunity to go to college, many of them were unable to receive a high school

03:18education or even a primary school education. Young people at that point were working on farms,

03:27they're working in fields, and they were working in factories, often under terrible, terrible conditions.

03:34Higher education at that time was available only to the children of the wealthy, mostly boys.

03:41Working people and trade unions understood at that time how unfair that was.

03:48And they looked around them, they saw the rich kids going to Harvard and Yale,

03:51and their kids not getting any education at all. And they fought hard all over this country

03:57to say, you know what, we want a public education system free for all kids to the 12th grade.

04:05And that was a major step forward for the United States of America.

04:09Well, the world has changed just a little bit over the last 100 years.

04:1540 or 50 years ago in Louisiana or Vermont, virtually any state in this country,

04:20if you received a high school degree, the odds were pretty good that you would be able to go out

04:26and get a decent paying job, raise a family, buy a house, and survive on one income.

04:35That was 40 or 50 years ago. Well, that world has changed.

04:39Today, the global economy has changed the world, technology has changed,

04:43and our educational needs have changed. Anybody here really think that a high school degree

04:48is all kids need today? Most people don't. In America today, a college degree is the equivalent

04:53in many ways of what a high school degree was a generation ago.

04:58Today, the median worker with a bachelor's degree will earn over a million dollars more

05:03in their career than that same worker with just a high school diploma.

05:06But it's not just money. Young people want to get the best education they can

05:11so that they can be productive and contributing members of our society.

05:16All over this country, I've had the opportunity to talk to young people who did well in high school.

05:21It's one of the saddest stories you're ever going to hear. Kids did well in high school.

05:25They want to get a college education, but they simply can't afford it.

05:28They look at the price tag and they say, no way am I going to go $50,000, $100,000 in debt.

05:33How many wonderful young scientists and teachers do we lose?

05:37How many of you lose?

05:38How many of you lose?

05:39How many of you lose?

05:40How many of you lose?

05:41How many of you lose?

05:42You lose.

05:43How many of you lose?

05:44How many of you lose?

05:45How many of you lose?

05:46How many of you lose?

05:47How many of you lose?

05:48How many of you lose?

05:49How many of you lose?

05:50How many of you lose?

05:51How many of you lose?

05:52How many of you lose?

05:53How many of you lose?

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