Al Franken Quotes

Our education system was developed for an industrial era where we could teach certain skills to our children and they were able to use these skills for the rest of their lives working productively in an industry.

Our education system is not meeting the needs of today’s workforce much less tomorrow’s.

Who's going to be against making sure students have the education for a knowledge economy?

Training the workforce of tomorrow with today's high schools is like trying to teach kids about today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe.

Our educational system should make the Filipino fit not just for whatever jobs happen to be on offer today, but also for whatever economic challenge life will throw in their way.

In a 21st-century economy, it is critical that we equip our nation's children with the tools they need to compete in a global marketplace.

Our education system is not preparing young people for the world they will face.

Today in America, we are trying to prepare students for a high tech world of constant change, but we are doing so by putting them through a school system designed in the early 20th Century that has not seen substantial change in 30 years.

Reducing our dependence on foreign energy - that is critically important to America's economic future. Excellence in education - if we're not the best educated, we're not going to be the most powerful for very long.

Everyone, young and old, must have access to the knowledge and skills to participate in the evolving economy.

If American schooling is inadequate now, just imagine how much more obsolete it will be when today's kindergarten students graduate from high school in just 12 years.

If we are going to compete in this world we're in today, there is no possible way we can do it with lowering expectations and dumbing down everything. Children are going to suffer, and families' hearts are going to be broken that their kids won't be able to get a job in the 21st Century.

We do not need Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Education; we need a single Department of Skills that will promote an integrated approach to global competitiveness.

It's not that our high school system was not designed well, but that it was designed in 1906 when the country was just out of the industrial era. There hasn't been a substantial systemic change the way we do high school since then.

The key to America's economic future is educating kids as early in their lives as we can.

Nothing is more important, certainly during these times of artificial intelligence, than our public education. And as it continues to grow and evolve, I think you and I know this is going to be critical that we are constantly training and retraining and creating these next-generation jobs.

Our education system has succeeded so far in teaching generations to do different routine tasks. So when tractors displaced farming labor, we taught the next generation to work in factories. But what we've never really been good at is teaching a huge number of people to do non-routine creative work.

Each day, we're sharpening Iowa's competitive edge in education and expanding our workplace partnerships with job-ready, STEM savvy, lifelong learners.

Our aspiration must be to reform, upgrade and enlarge our education system - and to make it relevant to 21st century realities of the digital economy, genomics, robotics and automation.

To shape today's and tomorrow's 'future proof' worker, schools must teach specialized hard skills, such as the STEM skills that are in high demand.

The single most important factor in determining America's success in the 21st century will be maintaining our ability to be an innovative and creative society.

The question is, will we continue to fight what may be a rearguard action to defend universal literacy as a central goal of our education system, or are we bold enough to see what's actually happening to our culture?

On education, in order to ensure that America remains a world leader, we must create an educated, skilled workforce in the vital areas of science, math, engineering and information technology. At the same time, we must give every student access to a college degree.

Studies have identified a significant 'skills gap' between what students are currently being taught and the skills employers are seeking in today's global economy. Our children must be better prepared than they are now to meet the future challenges of our ever-changing world.

We've got to be delivering young people, and people that are getting reeducated, people who are getting reemployed, into the marketplace with skills to work together, to understand computers, and to be able to be a part of that 21st century economy.