Milken Family Foundation National Education Conference: How Stakeholders Can Support Teacher Quality

By John Snyder, 1992 Nevada Milken Educator

As we finished our breakfast Thursday morning, Lowell Milken introduced U.S. Congressman Ralph Regula (D-OH 16th), vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and chairman of its Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.

Congressman Regula congratulated us educators for our efforts, and then decided to keep his prepared speech in his pocket and speak from his heart.

He told us of Tom Friedman's recent book, The World is Flat.  He described a world in which, thanks to a variety of recent developments, engineers can collaborate from different continents to build an engine, for instance.  He thought of his own daughter at home and how much things have changed since he was growing up himself.  It is no longer "Eat your food; think of all the starving people in China."  Now it is "Do your homework.  Think of all the little girls in China doing theirs."

He told of his efforts to keep America first.  He told of ALS victims who have asked him to fund research—not for themselves, for it is too late, but for those who will follow.  He says he meets a lot of very unselfish people in his role as a legislator.

It all comes back, he says, to the teacher in the school.  For a while in his own past, he taught while going to law school at night.  When he got to be an elementary school principal, he would often substitute for his teachers when they were sick.  It kept him in touch with what happens in the classroom, and in touch with the reality of some devastating statistics.  Of the students who enter school, 32 percent drop out.  Eight-five percent of inmates in the penal system were high school dropouts.  He reminded us that the decision to drop out doesn't happen during ninth grade, but in the third grade.

As a legislator, he has three goals:

1. Lower the dropout rate.
2. Everybody should be able to read.
3. There should be a quality teacher in every classroom.

He recounted seeing a film clip in which Hitler told of his most "influential" teacher, the one who instilled socialism in him.  Mr. Regula asked us what might havehappened if Hitler had instead had an influence for good.

At the Capitol, they had voted the previous night on the budget until one a.m., and the only field that received an increase was education.  He said we must become missionaries to the legislators about education.  The difference we make, he said, cannot be measured.

He described Troops To Teachers and Teach For America, two programs he sees as successful and productive at inspiring kids and lowering the dropout rate.

When he was a principal, he used to tell his teachers that the kids in their classes were little mirrors.  If they came in grumpy, the kids would probably be a little grumpy.  If they came in sparkly and cheerful, they would have a great day.  He bid us go back and inspire those little mirrors.

Mike Milken on Preparing for Globalization

When Congressman Regula had finished, Milken Family Foundation Co-Founder Michael Milken spoke to us about preparing for globalization.  In the 21st century, he said, we are going to have worldwide competition for human capital.  He has visited 16 countries this year, from which he gained a new perspective on what's happening in other hotspots around the world.

He said that no country has ever succeeded long-term by investing in commodities such as natural resources.  Now countries are investing in education rather than things.

He described the tremendously increasing number of professional athletes who were born in other countries.  The trend toward globalization is reflected in telecommunications.  Prices are spiraling down and speed is soaring for communication with any place in the world.  Taxes are being done in India for every state in the U.S.  Medical processes are done in India for four to ten percent of the cost of the same procedure in America.  Not only that, but their success rate is three times the American rate.

He talked about the shifting financial focus, particularly in China, India, and the United States.  He traced the evolution during the last 200 years.  He pointed out that 200 years ago, China and India were dominant in the world economic market.  The United States accounted for only 1.3% of the trade.  Since then, China and India's share has diminished, but they are now both on the upswing, and in not many years, the top three shares on the world economicchartwill be China, India, and the United States.  By then, Brazil and Mexico will also be major players.

Education is a changing field as well.  It is difficult to get educational visas here, so the students are going to England and Australia.  This is unfortunate, since even if they return to their own country, the students will be ambassadors of good will for the country in which they studied.

Singapore is also recruiting scientists from all over the world.  They have established million dollar scholarships to high-achieving students to provide a free educational ride through graduate school and/or medical school if the student will agree to move to and stay in Singapore.

Einstein was once asked about the most powerful concept he knew of.  He didn't say e=mc2.  He said "compound interest."  J.P. Morgan funded the Carrier company, which started an air conditioning industry.  Someone else patented air conditioning in the nineteenth century, but couldn't find funding.  Not many people remember his name.

Medical technology has evolved quickly.  In the 1950's, we had 58,000 cases of polio and they called it an epidemic.  Now, one in three women get cancer.  One in two men get cancer.  No one is calling it an epidemic.

That's why the Milken Family Foundation started medical awards programs similar to the Milken Educator Awards program:  the Founation's Cancer Research Awards and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.  In 2003, for the first time in 70 years, the number of people dying of cancer actually went down.

They also started FasterCures.  In Shanghai, you can travel on the train at 280 mph.  In America they are still going the same speed they have for 100 years.  It's the tracks and the thinking—still 19th and 20th century.  FasterCures is an effort to speed up medical research by "building better tracks."

Most of healthcare is lifestyle.  20-30 percent is based on genetics.  Childhood obesity is on the rise, perhaps because of the decline in athletics in schools, or perhaps because of what (and how much) we eat.  We've got to rethink our practices.  The 21st century demands new ways of thinking.

When they tried to get companies to move out to California, they thought they had taken care of everything—food, living quarters, the whole shot.  It turns out they missed something:  the people they were trying to persuade had education as their main concern. For this and many other reasons, the Milken Family Foundation started its National Educator Awards program.

Nobel winners recently chose two issues as most important in the future:  energy and education.  When Michael visited Dubai, he asked a classroom full of kids how many of them had wireless devices with them.  Every one of them had one.  Every single one.  And in the U.S., all incoming Duke University freshman get iPods on which they can store their lectures.

In Washington, there was wounded national pride went Sputnik went up.  We then restructured education.  Today, he challenged, where is our Sputnik that will change the way we do things?  Will it be China or India?  Will it be the fact that in a few years there will be more English speakers in China than in the rest of the world?  Or the fact that 85 percent of the jobs in America require skills, or that reading scores are plummeting, or that California is postponing testing math and reading while we bring up the percentage who can pass?

We saw a video clip of Albert Shankar, the former president of the American Federation of Teachers, who suggested that rather than vacillating between strict standards and loose standards, we need a different system.

Michael cautioned against fear of competition.  We should work with people from all over the world to get the best, he said.  In China, they pay three times as much for childcare as they do to go to college.  In America, we pay three to four times as much for a college education as we do for child care.  When Apple Computer was about to go bankrupt, IBM invested $500 million to revitalize them.

He talked about the last British ski jumper who jumped 253 feet.  The Olympic winner that year jumped 402 feet.  The big news was not that the British athlete hadn't won something, but that he didn't die or seriously injure himself in the attempt.  Now athletes must be in the top 30 percent to even be allowed to compete.  The lesson, he averred, is that we must get our kids past the minimums. We need them to be the 403-foot jumpers.  Sadly, only 11 percent of educators graduated in the top 10% of their high school class.

He left us with the question:  who will provide the next Sputnik event to revitalize our education program?  Will it be you…?

For more information on the Conference—including the agenda, bios of Conference presenters, photos and videos—please visit the Milken Family Foundation Web site at www.mff.org.

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