by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
As Duval County high schoolers graduate this week, they’re entering a work force crowded with overseas competitors who are better trained and better educated, the county’s superintendent of public schools said Tuesday.
Joseph Wise’s keynote address to the Cornerstone Quarterly Luncheon sounded more like an alarm bell than a commencement speech. That’s fitting, because Wise thinks Duval County students and parents need to wake up to the challenge presented by global competition.
“Students in India are not just required to learn English, they study our regional accents,” he said. “We don’t even require instruction in languages.”
That will change if Wise gets his way when the Duval County School Board meets June 6. He wants the board to approve tougher standards for graduation, including more math and science, a foreign language requirement and required professional training through electives.
It’s a necessary step for Duval students to keep up with the global labor market, said Wise. Employers are no longer limited by geography in who they hire. Increasingly, firms are looking abroad for hires, he said. And it’s not just because those workers are cheaper. It’s because they’re better.
“There’s no more home court advantage (for U.S. students),” said Wise. “Our students are competing with students abroad who receive a more rigorous education than what we’re providing.”
The pace of globalization is accelerating, he said. Outsourcing jobs used to be limited to manufacturing and heavy industry. Now, tax returns are shipped digitally to India and CAT scans are examined in Australia.
In addition to a tougher curriculum, Duval County’s schools — to stay competitive — need more teachers, more support from parents and more money, he said. Duval County ranks in the bottom third of Florida counties in state funding and Florida ranks 42nd out of 50 states in the money it spends per student on education, he said.