Bill Gates To America: "Our High Schools Are Obsolete!"

In a speech given at the National Education Summit on High Schools, Bill Gates (pictured above with wife Melinda) told America’s Governors that:

“America’’s high schools are obsolete.

By obsolete, I don’t just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed, and under-funded – though a case could be made for every one of those points.

By obsolete, I mean that our high schools – even when they’’re working exactly as designed – cannot teach our kids what they need to know today.”

America is falling behind and our Congressmen aren’t being called in from vacation or on the weekend to work on solutions to improve the situation. Our children, indeed, today’s children are competing for jobs with not just those at the local high school or with kids on the West Coast or Mid West. They are competing with the world. Shangai, India, China, and others are catching up and are taking our calls, drafting patent applications, proofreading documents, reading X-rays, and more, in a faster, cheaper, and in growing instances, better than we can.

It is important to note that Mr. Gates wasn’t talking just about public high schools. He said all and meant it.

TheStateOf . . . our country’s youth are at stake. Now this doesn’t mean we have to sabotage other Countries” growth. It means we have to stop being stagnant. It’s a problem not just for the local city school boards, but the state legislatures, and the U.S. Congress (if they can get their heads out of their assumptions). The text and video of his speech can be found at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website.