The Senate Education Committee
yesterday saw a display of just how critically important the Arizona’s
education environment is to the state’s business community.
Anyone watching the hearing now
knows that a state’s tax, labor, regulatory and legal environments are all
important to companies considering investment, but a quality K-12 education
system can be the ultimate difference maker.
Over 200 groups and individuals
signed-in at yesterday’s hearing to indicate their support for Arizona’s Common
Core standards and a new assessment to replace the AIMS exam, which only
measures whether a student has achieved 10th grade competency and
gives little to no insight into whether a student is ready to move on to higher
education or the workforce.
Former Intel Chairman and CEO
Dr. Craig Barrett, who chairs the governor’s AZ Ready task force and is not only
one of the state’s but the world’s foremost experts in education, gave
extremely persuasive testimony about the need for higher standards in Arizona
schools.
To explain the disconnect
between our students' potential and the current readiness levels of high school
graduates Dr. Barrett explained, “I don’t think we have a kid problem. I think we have an
adult and a system problem. We have had lower standards and lower expectations
than most of the world.”
Rep. Doris Goodale deserves
credit for her work to take the AIMS test offline and move Arizona education
into the future. Rep. Goodale has remained steadfast in the face of
unsubstantiated and false rumors about some sort of U.N.-directed curriculum
from those who prefer to stop progress than offer solutions to improved education.
Legitimate concerns over whether Arizona will maintain sufficient control over
its education fate have been addressed by our state’s education leadership and
the Board of Education, ensuring that Arizona’s education system will be shaped
by decisions made here at home, not in Washington.
“We cannot – we must not
– continue a 10th grade assessment which translates into a 60 – that
is six zero – percent remediation rate in college readiness and scores on
college placement exams well below the national average,” Rep. Goodale said.
One of Arizona’s brightest
stars, Eileen Klein, who is now heading the Arizona Board of Regents after
recently departing as Gov. Brewer’s chief of staff where she wrote the book on
how to manage an executive office, was on hand to drive home the point of the
inextricable links between a state’s economic success and the quality of
education output.
“Sixty four percent of all of
our future jobs in the state are going to require some level of college
education,” Klein said. “If you look at our neighboring states, in Colorado,
they have a 10 percent higher degree attainment rate; they have about a $10,000
per capita salary that’s higher than Arizona. If we were even achieving at
their level we’d add $60 billion to our economy.”
All of these efforts to align
the education and business community could not be done without the hard work of
leaders who are relentless in their belief that a good education will bring
more opportunity to their business and their state.
Pearl Chang Esau, the talented
and inspiring president and CEO of Expect More Arizona, has been invaluable in
leveraging her organization’s powerful voice to affect major changes in Arizona
education policy.
We at the Chamber are also
fortunate to have Becky Hill of R&R Partners representing us on a host of
issues, but especially education, at the Capitol. Becky has forgotten more
about education policy than most of us will ever know. Having Becky on our team
is an incredible asset for an Arizona business community that is putting more
effort into education than ever before.
Just last week, dozens of CEOs
and business leaders from across the state wrote to legislators making clear
the business community’s support for teaching to higher education standards. As
we wrote in the letter, “too many Arizona students graduate high school without
the necessary skills to succeed in the 21st century.”
Following the hearing, positive
things are beginning to happen on the legislative front. Language to end AIMS
cleared the Senate and has been sent to the House. We’ll keep the pressure on
and continue to ensure our legislators understand the importance of higher
standards and an aligned assessment.
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