Greenspan warns of coming education crisis

Students ill-prepared for tech explosion
BY MARTIN CRUTSINGER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The nation's education system is not doing enough to prepare students to take advantage of the explosion in information technology, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Tuesday.

Greenspan said that schools needed to go beyond simply wiring classrooms for the Internet and develop comprehensive guidelines on the best way to teach students how to make use of all the new technologies.

Greenspan, who uses a computer on his desk at the Fed to keep track of market developments around the world, said in a speech before the National Governors Association that greater emphasis must be placed on making sure the nation's schools are preparing American workers for a rapidly changing workplace.

``The heyday when a high school or college education would serve a graduate for a lifetime is gone,'' Greenspan said. ``Today's recipients of diplomas expect to have many jobs and to use a wide range of skills over their working lives.''

Speaking at the governor's annual meeting in State College, Pa., Greenspan said it was important to maintain the lead American universities have as research centers where new innovations can be developed.

``If we are to remain pre-eminent in transforming knowledge into economic value, the U.S. system of higher education must remain the world's leader in generating scientific and technological breakthroughs and in preparing workers to meet the evolving demands for skilled labor,'' Greenspan said.

Greenspan said states, local school systems, labor unions and business groups should work together to develop appropriate standards for teaching information technology skills in the classroom.

He said standards are needed because schools now too often narrowly interpret their job as simply teaching students how to type on the computer or permitting students to do research on the Internet.

``Incorporating new technologies into the educational process . . . must involve more than simply wiring the classroom,'' Greenspan said.

Part of this effort should include greater emphasis on providing teachers with the technological skills they will need to teach their students how to cope in cyberspace.

In his remarks, Greenspan said nothing about future Fed actions regarding interest rates. But he repeated upbeat comments he has made before that computers and other high-tech gadgets have had a significant impact in boosting the nation's productivity, the amount of output per hour of work.

Those comments and the absence of new worries from Greenspan about inflation helped lift stock prices. The Dow Jones industrial average finished the day up 80.61 at 10,727.19