Workforce

Attracting, Educating, and Empowering Workers

If American companies are to compete and win in a worldwide economy, they need well-educated and well-trained workers.

No one can outwork or out-think the American worker.  But if we are to remain competitive internationally, the best foundation for a competitive economy starts with an education and training system that gives American workers the skills they need for the jobs of the 21st Century.

• America needs to change the way that it trains, pays, and evaluates teachers. Pay for performance and incentive pay should be the rule.
• The bureaucratic culture that stifles learning in too many public schools should be replaced with a spirit of innovation through programs such as expanded learning time, early enrollment of high schoolers in college-level courses, online learning programs, and more charter schools.
• Education does not end upon graduation, and workers of all ages who receive ongoing training will be productive and successful
• We must support legislation that seeks to double the number of graduating  scientists and engineers within 10 years.

A guest on my radio show -- The Neal Asbury Show – had an interesting suggestion.  He suggested that it’s time to enact a new GI Bill to retrain workers and reestablish the importance of Intellectualism to help produce new ideas and inventions.  He sees the U.S. creating Google-ready jobs and training Google-ready workers. He contends that if we continue to follow a pattern where only 70 percent of high school students graduate, we will not be able to maintain our global leadership position in innovation and technology.

In addition America must have a comprehensive, rational, and balanced immigration policy that secures the borders, while welcoming legal immigrants who want to work towards the American dream and realistically addresses the undocumented workers already in the United States.

Immediate action is needed to address pressing visa shortages that are hurting businesses, especially in the H-1B high-skilled and the H-2B seasonal worker visa categories.  What is killing the skilled labor force is a trend of foreign workers receiving their education and training in the U.S. only to return to their own country, costing America precious intellectual capital.

Because no federal policy has been adopted, state and local governments are adopting hundreds of immigration rules and regulations that are often contradictory and impossible for businesses to comply with.