Gates urges overhaul of schools

Bill Gates, who has personally donated $3 billion dollars to education since 1999, is calling for an immediate overhaul of the nation’s schools if we are going to keep our jobs from going overseas.  As reported in the Deseret News Mar. 9 2007 Gates told congress "The U.S. cannot maintain its economic leadership unless our work force consists of people who have the knowledge and skills needed to drive innovation," Gates told the Senate committee that oversees labor and education issues.”

Why is he alarmed.  It’s not hard to understand when you realize that:

* A federal study released last month showed about a third of high schoolers fail to take a standard-level curriculum, which is defined as including at least four credits of English and three credits each of social studies, math and science.

* A federal study found 40 percent of high school seniors failed to perform at the basic level on a national math test.

* On a national science test, half of 12th-graders didn't show basic skills.

"We simply cannot sustain an economy based on innovation unless our citizens are educated in math, science and engineering," Gates said.

Whether you like Gates or not, these are alarming and real concerns for future of our country and standard of living for our children.  What are we doing to solve this problem?