David Brooks says Education is “The Biggest Issue”

Conservative columnist David Brooks of the New York Times wrote Tuesday that “the biggest issue facing the country” is the national “skills slowdown” that has resulted from stagnant or modest educational gains since 1970.

Citing Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz’s book The Race Between Education and Technology, Brooks writes that while the U.S. experienced unparalleled educational growth for nearly a century, that growth slowed dramatically after 1970. This allowed nations around the world to catch up and, says Brooks, cost America its lead in the global economy.

Brooks suggests that the U.S. place a new emphasis on boosting educational attainment and fostering “human capital.” To that end, the conservative Brooks highlights Sen. Barack Obama’s ideas on early childhood education, while admitting that “Republicans are inept when talking about human capital policies.”

A colorfully-monikered blogger posted a response to Brooks’s column, writing about No Child Left Behind and asserting, “We need to give the teachers back control of their own curriculum.”

Megan Garber at the Columbia Journalism Review had a “Slow Clap Moment” after reading the piece. (“You know that classic, climactic moment in movies, when someone gives a controversial-yet-rousing speech, and the audience, silent at first, slowly begins clapping? And the clapping builds and builds, until suddenly the speaker is bathed in thunderous applause?”)

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