Spellings to Business: Blame Outsourcing and Factory Closures on Poor Schools

While corporations continue to export American jobs to slave labor factories in China and elsewhere with no regard for the third-worlding effect such policies are having in the American heartland, Margaret Spellings continues her unending PR tour to blame bad schools, thus offering corporations a ready-made excuse, and to pump her stupidifying NCLB de-education policy.

Of course, there are no shortages of qualified American workers for the jobs flying to cheap labor markets--there is just a shortage of qualified workers who will work for 50 cents an hour. And that's a problem that only de-education can solve with a "good, strong, hawkish" law:

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings on Monday confronted a challenge on many Americans' minds: how relatively comfortable U.S. students can compete against the family-driven zeal children bring to school in countries such as China and India.

Political leaders "have to keep putting the elephant on the dining room table" and kindling a sense of urgency on this front, Spellings said Monday during a swing through Denver.

Today's U.S. educational system "is not sufficient" to prepare students to compete in the global economy, she said. "In some places, you'll have to have big plant layoffs and soul-searching" before Americans grasp what's at stake.

Spellings made the remarks in an interview after meeting with 23 Colorado business leaders downtown. Improving schools "is absolutely relevant to us as businesspeople," said Zack Neumeyer, board chairman of Sage Hospitality Resources, a hotel management firm.

He and other local executives raised concerns about global competition. Convinced that Colorado schools are failing to prepare students to succeed, they've launched a campaign called Colorado Succeeds to improve schools and student competitiveness.

Executives elsewhere have announced they're considering moving more business abroad where they can draw on a better-educated workforce.

The point of Spellings' visit was drumming up support for congressional reauthorization of the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind reforms now in place for five years.

This is "a good, strong, hawkish" law that is improving schools and student achievement, she said . . . .