On March 20, Alliance for Excellent Education president, and former governor of West Virginia, Bob Wise, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance at a hearing on “Realizing a Competitive Education: Identifying Needs, Partnerships, and Resources.”

Video of Gov. Wise's opening testimony before the Committee is available at: http://wm.nmmstream.net/aee/bobwisewmv52127.asx

In his testimony, Gov. Wise discussed how the nation’s economy and global competitiveness are adversely impacted by the nation’s low graduation rates and poorly prepared high school graduates, citing analysis by the Alliance for Excellent Education:

• If the 1.2 million high school dropouts from the Class of 2006 had stayed in school and earned their diplomas, the U.S. economy would have seen an additional $309 billion in wages over these students’ lifetimes

• Since 75 percent of the nation’s state prison inmates, 59 percent of federal inmates, and 69 percent of jail inmates did not complete high school, $7.7 billion could be saved a year on crime costs just by raising the male graduation rate by 5 percent

• If the U.S. education system could raise minority high school graduation rates to the current level of whites, and if those new graduates were to go on to postsecondary education at similar rates, additional personal income would be more than $310.4 billion by 2020, yielding additional tax revenues and a considerably improved economic future for the individuals and their communities.

“This is an important time for the Senate Committee on Finance to be looking at this issue, because education is the cornerstone of our nation’s economic future,” said Gov. Wise.  “With the No Child Left Behind Act up for renewal, Congress has the opportunity to strengthen it so that all children receive a high-quality education that prepares them for the 21st century.  This should include designating federal funds specifically to improve low-performing secondary schools, increasing high school graduation rates, and improving every child’s ability to read and write at grade level.”

Gov. Wise’s full written testimony is available at the Alliance’s website at:
http://www.all4ed.org/files/Wise_SenateFinance.pdf

Other witnesses before the Committee hearing presided over by Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) included:

Jane Karas, President, Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell, MT
William Green, Chief Executive Officer, Accenture, Boston, MA
Greg Taylor, Vice President for Programs, Youth and Education, Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, MI
Patty Myers, Teacher, Lewis and Clark Elementary, Great Falls, MT
Steven L. Paine, State Superintendent, West Virginia Department of Education, East Charleston, WV

Complete testimony, including Senators Baucus' and Grassley's opening statements, is available at http://www.senate.gov/~finance/sitepages/hearing032007.htm.

A complete video of the hearing is available at:
http://wm.nmmstream.net/genasx/aee/200307wmv52104.asx

Complete  audio* from the hearing is available at: http://dl.nmmstream.net/media/aee/events/200307.mp3

* To download audio MP3 files, right-click over "audio" link in Internet Explorer and select "Save Target As...". Other browsers (Firefox, Netscape, etc...) have similar functionality. To listen only, simply left-click on "audio" link.