American adults need to fine-tune educational skills

Were you surprised when the results showed that the American adults scored below the International average on a global test? The U.S. scored 16th in reading skills, 21st in math skills and 17th in problem solving. Wow!

We need to create more ways to reach adults to upgrade their skills. Otherwise adults will be stuck at the current level that they are working and will not be able to climb up the ladder to produce better results.

We are considered to be the richest country in the world but we are $16.7 trillion in actual debt and over $60 trillion in debt with our unfunded liabilities.

Then the global test shows us one of the reasons we are in debt. We have far too many who are under-educated to the point that they are not productive workers.

The people who were targeted for this study were from 16 to 65. That means some are still in school and that the others go back to mid 60s; which is the time that the government began pushing their way into education with their rules and money. It was also the time that the teachers began flexing their muscles.

Any successful free country must have a highly skilled workforce. Young people coming out of high school and college must have skills to enter the workforce; and adults who don’t have good skills must acquire skills to stay in the workforce. Failure to get the majority of our adult population into a position of being in the upper five percent of education skills will destroy our chances of being a strong prosperous nation.

Gerald W. Ray, Spokane