AN EDUCATED CITIZENRY​

If you haven’t read the editorial page of the November 30, 2017 Boston Globe, please click the link here. The top of the page Boston Globe editorial is about the diversity of this years Rhodes Scholars, the diversity of the workforce of the most successful companies and research organizations. It credits Federal NIH Research Funding.

The editorial by the President of BU, Robert A. Brown, is about how important education is in general for global competitiveness. He comments on how the current tax proposal in Congress denigrates higher ed so it will have the effect of reducing educational opportunities in our country, and reducing innovation.

The editorial by the President of Northeastern University, Joseph E. Aoun, although his title, “The Wrong Debate on Taxes” implies another analysis of the Tax Reduction Proposal, his editorial is actually about our need to start now to retrain our workforce in preparation for Robots/Artificial Intelligence taking over our economy. His editorial is a call for lifelong learning; for universities to go beyond educating the young, to educating everyone. Wow! These editorials remind me that our government must educate its citizens to ensure our future success as a country. Corporations and rich people (and of course all people) need the U.S. to have an educational system that turns out leaders who innovate, who recognize the best ideas from those who may not look, pray or speak like they do, and which also supports research into topics that may not seem obviously the basis of future money making. Long-term thinking is critical.

Education, healthcare, and infrastructure could benefit from keeping the Federal Tax structure as is. When our government is short sighted, we need to figure out how to get our law makers some glasses…or maybe some additional education?

What’s your view of the future?​