Cavazos Calls for Curing U.S. ‘Education Deficit’

U.S. Secretary of Education Lauro Cavazos said Friday during a visit to Los Angeles that the nation will not solve its budget and trade deficits until it addresses its “education deficit.”

But Cavazos told an audience of about 600 at UCLA that he does “not sense a national commitment to improve education” and said public interest in the problem must be raised.

“We will not develop solutions to the budget deficit and the trade deficit until we solve the education deficit,” Cavazos said.

‘Horrendous Dropout Rates’

He cited falling test scores and “horrendous dropout rates” as reasons why 27 million, or 13%, of all Americans are illiterate and another 40 million are “functionally illiterate.”

As a consequence, America ranks near the bottom in math and other science scores when compared with its industrial trading partners, Cavazos said.

“We should not underestimate the gravity of the problems we face,” he said. “It is not written in the stars that the United States of America will always be a world leader or even that we will survive as a free nation.”

Cavazos, who delivered the keynote address at a celebration marking UCLA’s $370-million, six-year fund-raising drive, said it behooves the public sector to increase its contributions to public universities.

“In supporting higher education at the state level, they recognize that in an increasingly competitive world market, education will either be the greatest asset of American business or its greatest liability,” he said.

Already businesses are training or educating about two-thirds as many people as are institutions of high learning, Cavazos said.

The nation’s 26% high school dropout rate, including 45% of all Hispanics and 28% of blacks, has resulted in a “tremendous loss of human potential,” Cavazos said.

1st Latino in Cabinet

The first Latino to hold a White House Cabinet post, Cavazos called on universities to recruit more minority students.

He said there is a special need for minority teachers, noting that 30% of the students in the nation are minorities but only 13% of teachers are minorities.

Cavazos, former president of Texas Tech University, was awarded the UCLA Medal, the university’s highest honor, for his achievements in education.