
US Education system must compete with China, India: Obama - nreece
http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/jul/15/edu-system-must-compete-with-china-india-obama.htm
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limist
The article is a bit short on details of Obama's policy initiative, here's a
link from the White House:

[http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Excerpts-of-
the-P...](http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Excerpts-of-the-
Presidents-remarks-in-Warren-Michigan-and-fact-sheet-on-the-American-
Graduation-Initiative/)

While the rhetoric is good, the realities are far more complex and I don't see
much in this plan that addresses deeper, long-term rot in the system of
American higher education. Watch the documentary "Declining by Degrees" to get
a big-picture assessment. Major problems: costs that are spiraling out of
control (outpacing inflation for decades), incentive structures for professors
that largely ignores students and student learning (e.g. research papers that
few read versus teaching well), no agreed-upon evaluations of what students
are actually learning, and broadly declining standards at all levels (e.g.
increasing numbers of remedial classes for entering high school students,
grade inflation in college to retain students).

