"(Damon 1990) Everyone seems to agree that changes need to be made in the school system. The controversy comes in what kind of changes, and how these changes can and should be made. .
THE PROBLEM FOR AMERICAN BUSINESS.
America is facing a monumental mismatch between jobs and the ability of Americans to do them. Although, several factors exist is today's society which contribute to this growing gap, three forces are combining to produce this leap in the skills the economy will require. First, the advances being made in technology are increasing the demand for higher skilled workers in most jobs. The new workplace needs people who possess high reading and math capabilities, so millions of jobs go unfilled or understaffed while the unemployment figures rise. Second, job growth will be mainly in high-skill occupations and most of these will be in the service sector. The skills necessary to perform these jobs will require knowledge that wasn't required twenty years ago. Finally, the way in which work is being organized will require a new set of skills as companies shift from an assembly-line production to one that employs a team work effort emphasizing quality control groups. This shift will mean that the employees of tomorrow will have to improve their ability to communicate both verbally and in writing. .
Adding to the problem, as we approach the year 2000, is the fact that the labor force is shrinking and new entrants to this smaller workforce will be primarily women and minorities. The problem that this presents to business is that minorities are particularly at risk in the educational system. The Hudson Institute has matched the new jobs that will be created against a scale used to measure the level of reading, writing, and vocabulary needed to perform these jobs. Their findings are disheartening to say the least. More than 75 percent of the nation's new workers will have limited verbal and writing skills (levels 1 and 2) and with those limited skills they will be competing for only 40 percent of the new jobs.