Authors: Ray Marshall, Marc S. Tucker
ISBN-13: 9780465085576, ISBN-10: 0465085571
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: October 1993
Edition: REPRINT
Ray Marshall, who was Secretary of Labor under President Carter, holds the Audre and Bernard Rappoport Centennial Chair in Economics and Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. Mark Tucker is President of the National Center on Education and the Economy and Professor Education at the University of Rochester.
This is the first book to address head-on the issue of the appalling mismatch between what our economy needs and what our educational institutions actually provide.
A highly educated and trained workforce is the key to economic growth and full employment, assert the authors of this boldly visionary book, an important contribution to the debate over national priorities and the U.S.'s economic competitiveness. They urge the nation's employers to heed the lessons learned by Germany, Japan, Sweden and Singapore--countries that have linked education and economic policy into a single integrated strategy. In those countries, many ``front-line'' workers--those in non-managerial and nontechnical positions--are granted quasi-managerial responsibilities and are rewarded for improving product design, manufacturing quality and overall productivity. In their ``coherent national strategy for human resources development,'' Marshall and Tucker advocate employers' commitment to the continued education of front-line workers, massive investment in teacher salaries, adoption of more stringent educational standards, legalization of tax credits for families with children, an increase in the minimum wage and creation of a national health insurance program modeled on Canada's. Marshall, an economist, was Secretary of Labor under Jimmy Carter; Tucker is president of the National Center on Education and the Economy in Washington, D.C., and Rochester, N.Y. (Sept.)
Acknowledgements | ||
Introduction: The American Economy: Point of Decision | ||
Pt. I | America Preeminent: Riding the Second Industrial Revolution to Success | |
1 | The Mass-Production Economy: The American Way | 3 |
2 | Mass-Producing Education | 13 |
Pt. II | The Forces Changing the World Economy: Our Competitors Respond | |
3 | Technology, Competitiveness, and the New International Economy | 31 |
4 | Our Competitors Take the Lead: The Path to Human-Resource Capitalism | 43 |
Pt. III | The Challenge | |
5 | America on the Precipice: Will We Boil the Frog? | 62 |
6 | Facing the Challenge - At Last | 76 |
Pt. IV | The New American System: Strategies for High Performance | |
7 | The Demand for Excellence: Can - and Will - Employers and Labor Lead the Way? | 91 |
8 | Restructuring the Schools for High Performance: Tough Road to Excellence | 109 |
9 | Incentives: The Great Debate | 128 |
10 | Building a System Driven by Standards | 143 |
11 | The Family | 164 |
12 | Rebuilding the Community Fabric | 181 |
13 | Technical and Professional Education | 201 |
14 | A Labor-Market System for America | 216 |
Pt. V | Two Futures: Which Will We Choose? | |
15 | Investing in Our People | 239 |
Notes | 257 | |
Index | 269 |