patth@ccnysci.UUCP (Patt Haring) (05/03/89)
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*U.S. FAR BEHIND IN HEALTH CARE AND EDUCATION, PANEL FINDS
Although Americans spend 50% more on health care, as a percentage of their
economy, than any of the 22 principal industrialized countries, the United
States ranks 20th in infant mortality and in the bottom third with respect to
life expectancy at birth. This was one of the disturbing conclusions of a
bipartisan report by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, the first in
nine years to be approved by all committee members. But the committee singled
out education as ``perhaps the most prominent area where our nation's
shortcomings threaten to impose enormous long-term costs,'' noting that
``approximately 13% of 17-year-old Americans cannot read, write, or count''
and that many are members of a ``widening underclass'' of the homeless and the
very poor who live outside of the mainstream. ``The United States spends more
per student than other industrialized nations,'' according to the report,
``but it is still falling behind. . . in promoting literacy, job skills, and
educational achievement. . . ,'' with a dropout rate for blacks of 40% and
more than 55% for Hispanic students. The decline in college enrollment,
especially among minorities, was described as another cause for concern. A
contributing factor, the committee indicated, may be the finding that while
family income rose 6.4% in the 1980s, the cost of public colleges rose 32% and
of private institutions, 51%, at the same time that government grants to
students declined. The result was a 17% increase in student loans since the
1970s. ``Increased public outlays for education should be viewed as a
necessary and vital investment,'' the report said. Finally, in describing a
sharp increase in poverty, especially among the young, in the past decade, the
committee said that ``the puzzle is that poverty is still so much higher than
in the l970s even though unemployment is significantly lower.'' ``A most
urgent concern,'' the committee concluded, ``is the insulation of the current
generation of underclass children from the dispiriting effects of their
environment.'' THE NEW YORK TIMES April 19, 1989 p.A16.
(Compiled from Newspapers and Medical Journals for IMTS's Healthweek In
Review.)
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Patt Haring
rutgers!cmcl2!ccnysci!patth
patth@ccnysci.BITNETmathon@tekbspa.UUCP (John D. Mathon ) (05/04/89)
In article <1843@ccnysci.UUCP>, patth@ccnysci.UUCP (Patt Haring) writes: > But the committee singled > out education as ``perhaps the most prominent area where our nation's > shortcomings threaten to impose enormous long-term costs,'' noting that > ``approximately 13% of 17-year-old Americans cannot read, write, or count'' > and that many are members of a ``widening underclass'' of the homeless and the > very poor who live outside of the mainstream. ``The United States spends more > per student than other industrialized nations,'' according to the report, > ``but it is still falling behind. . . in promoting literacy, job skills, and > educational achievement. . . ,'' with a dropout rate for blacks of 40% and > more than 55% for Hispanic students. I find it amazing that you point out that we are already spending more money than anyone else and yet the committee seems to think more money is the answer. If anything is clear, MORE MONEY IS NOT THE ANSWER! The real answer is to more effectively use the money we already spend. We already spend more money than everyone else. More money is not the answer. What could be more obvious? A good analogy would be: saying that we already spend more money for each foot of steel, and we make vastly inferior steel. So we need to spend MORE money on each foot of steel. All we will have is very expensive steel that nobody will buy since we haven't addressed the issue of why our steel is low quality in the first place and now it will cost even more. How stupid. Let's stop talking about money and start talking solutions.