Innovation is the Future
by Glen Hiemstra on 28/06/09 at 6:41 pm | 
Tom Friedman gets it right in his column today, quoting the former CEO of Intel as to what the best path out of recession is. First, require everyone to graduate from High School before they can get a drivers license. Then, as Friedman quotes Craig Barrett…
Barrett argues that we should also use this crisis to: 1) require every state to benchmark their education standards against the best in the world, not the state next door; 2) double the budgets for basic scientific research at the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology; 3) lower the corporate tax rate; 4) revamp Sarbanes-Oxley so that it is easier to start a small business; 5) find a cost-effective way to extend health care to every American.
Much of what I have been saying for some time.
Glen Hiemstra is a futurist speaker, consultant, blogger, internet video host and founder of Futurist.com. To arrange for a speech contact Futurist.com.
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Gary Hammons
Jun 29th, 2009
A driver’s license should be considered an economic asset and should be promoted/supported, especially for those unable or unwilling to complete high school. The lack of a driver’s license precludes many kinds of employment and limits access to continuing (community college) education.
glen Hiemstra
Jun 30th, 2009
Gary,
Agree that requiring HS degree to get drivers license may be too draconian with unintended consequences, but what I liked was the out-of-the-box thinking. Helps to read the Friedman column and see the context in which Craig Barrett is making that suggestion. His better idea may be benchmarking local schools against global schools, not the schools in the next state over. We are falling behind and the long term prognosis is not good if we do not continually improve our education attainment, both in terms of quality and numbers of people (and thus the drivers license idea). Thanks for commenting.
Glen H.