Ironically, some thought that K-12 education got shortchanged in this State of the Union. But from an educator’s perspective, K-12 and the President’s focus on workforce skills are seamlessly connected. Realizing a skilled workforce requires meeting more students where they are and providing them with options. No one silver bullet can accomplish this. Rather, it’s a combination of linking curriculum to students’ lives and interests – and integrating strategies that make school more relevant and engaging.

One option that shows promise is career academies, which aim to keep students interested in school by demonstrating how their coursework can help them succeed in the future. Academies combine a college preparatory curriculum with technical and occupational courses and team with local businesses to provide students with important after-school, career-related learning opportunities. Tyner Academy in Chattanooga, Tennessee demonstrates how elements of this strategy yield real benefits for students.

Much of this work happens in high school but it starts well before prom season. Building a skilled workforce begins with high quality preschool; strong elementary programs that ensure students are doing grade-level work when they enter middle school; and middle school programs that ensure that students have access to algebra, science, and other courses critical to future achievement. If students are able to begin high school with a strong foundation, they are more likely to stay in school and graduate.

The President’s new focus on career and technical education is necessary and useful to millions of students. Our members want to make certain that every high school student walks across the stage, diploma in hand, prepared for the next stage in life.

Career preparation isn’t a distraction from reforming K-12 education, it’s one of the primary reasons that reform is vital. So it has to be a factor in the education we give our young people, from the first day of pre-school through college graduation.

When President Obama told a University of Texas audience last year that “Education is the economic issue of our time,” he had it exactly right.

He backed his assertion up with facts that will be familiar to everyone who reads this exchange. the unemployment rate for those without college is nearly double the rate for college graduates. By the end of the decade, nearly eight of ten jobs will require college or another post-secondary educational experience. “Countries that out-educate us today,” he said, “will out-compete us tomorrow.”

We properly focus on college as the defining criterion for both personal and national economic success. But we cannot keep the president’s commitment—to regain world leadership in the proportion of citizens with college degrees—without a high-performing public education system from pre-school through high school that prepares students to succeed at college coursework Youngsters who reach first grade without their numbers are unlikely to master grade-school arithmetic, middle-school pre-algebra, or high school algebra II and pre-calculus—which an increasing number of colleges demand as an admission prerequisite. We can’t order education cafeteria-style, in other words. It has to be a full-course meal.

Education needs, as well, to be aligned with the requirements of the job market, and educators at every level need to work with employers to do the aligning. This does not mean turning high school and college education into narrowly-focused vocational training. It does mean not teaching switchboard-era skill-sets to students headed for a smart-phone economy. And it means providing students with the skills and attitudes they will need for a work-life in which they will change not only jobs but careers on a regular basis.

Preparing young people for a productive career is not the only reason we send them to school and insist that the education they get be a good one. We teach them the arts and humanities’ we hope will enrich their lives, and the science and technology they will need to be informed and active citizens. We try to foster a strong sense of morality and good character.

But career preparation is the fundamental reason that students aspire to college, pay tuition, and study hard. If we don’t give them that, we will have failed indeed.

President Obama’s blueprint for revitalizing America’s manufacturing industry, growing clean energy jobs, and preparing our workers for the 21st century will be a great step forward in rebuilding our economy. An important part of that plan is his call for new partnerships between community colleges and businesses to train and place 2 million skilled workers. As the President’s plan noted, “In today’s global economy, a college education is no longer just a privilege for some, but rather a prerequisite for all.”

To reach the President’s ambitious goal, we will have to deal with some troubling realities. Over 26 million adults in the United States lack a high school degree and 1.3 million young people fail to graduate high school every year. In 1970, the United States had the highest rate of high school graduation in the world; today, we rank 21st in high school completion and 15th in college completion. In addition, it’s estimated that some 93 million Americans lack basic literacy skills.

There is, however, growing experience with approaches that help more lower-skilled, low-income Americans develop the skills and behaviors needed to get into college and earn a degree or credential—and ultimately to succeed in today’s complex global economy.

Across the country, early college high schools are significantly improving graduation and college-going rates for our most disadvantaged young people. Innovative, recuperative education strategies are helping students who have dropped out of high school earn a GED and go on to community college. Similarly, several states are now implementing programs that help adults earn a GED or equivalent while also taking community college courses that will lead to a credential.

These models are based on a common principle: creating integrated, accelerated educational pathways directly tied to the skills needed by regional employers is the best road to success for those struggling to improve their lives. It is exactly these types of innovative models that the President is calling for as part of his proposed First in the World competition to boost higher education attainment and outcomes.

These innovative solutions will only work if postsecondary education is made truly affordable for everyone. The President’s call for continued low interest rates on student loans, an extension of tax credits, and other measures are important. And while we certainly applaud the Administration’s efforts to increase Pell Grant awards for low-income students, recent changes to Pell eligibility made by Congress severely limit the ability of low-income workers to access financial aid. We would urge the Administration to work with Congress to reverse this detrimental restriction.

Improving educational opportunities for all Americans is essential to our country’s economic recovery and long-term growth. We join with the President in his call to make this ambitious goal a reality.

With more than 13 million Americans unemployed and looking for work, our leaders must be doing all they can to help job-seekers afford the skills, training, and credentials they need to enter or re-enter the workforce.

Yet there's a countdown to an ominous deadline for college students across America and when time runs out, it will negatively impact students ability to affordably pay for college. On July 1, 2012, student loan interest rates will double for almost 8 million undergraduate students. Without a plan, millions of students will pay up to a crushing $5,000 more in student debt from interest over 10-years on new student loans in order to finance the higher education and post-secondary job training they and our nation need. Additionally, at the end of the year the American Opportunity Tax Credit will expire increasing costs by up to $10,000 for millions of families if not extended.

Over the previous decade, the number of students taking out loans to pay for college grew from one-third to two-thirds and the amount of student loan debt those graduates held surpassed $25,000. As states cut funding and federal student aid stagnates, students and families who need to cover college costs turn to loans.

Heavy student loan debt carries negative consequences for borrowers. On the front end, the promise of high debt can dissuade qualified high school graduates from ever enrolling in college. After graduation, students must make monthly payments with their hard-earned dollars rather than save up and get ahead. High debt can affect where graduates live, the kind of careers they pursue, when they start a family or purchase a home, and whether they can save for retirement. The combination of high student debt and low earnings can lead to default, ruined credit and wage garnishment. Borrowers in unemployment or those encountering other financial distress are most at risk.

The bottom line: we know that higher education drives economic growth. Eighty percent of the fastest growing jobs in the country demand training above a high school level. Our workforce needs 22 million more degrees by 2018, but we are on pace to fall short by three million degrees. Keeping college affordable is a key measure in accomplishing this goal.

If this Congress is serious about job recovery, making college more expensive by allowing student loan interest rates to increase and the American Opportunity Tax Credit to expire is the wrong approach.

Lawmakers can support the effort to keep interest rates from doubling by co-sponsoring H.R. 3826, sponsored by Rep Courtney, or S. 2051, sponsored by Sentor Reed.

The president is right on in connecting the call for education reform to job and workforce readiness. Whether we’re talking about building up on biotech corridor based in Farmington CT, filling hundreds of unfilled advanced manufacturing jobs here in Connecticut, recruiting new employers to the state, or anything in between, the missing link has long been education. If Connecticut is serious about ensuring every public high school graduate is college and career ready, we can no longer accept the growing achievement gaps we face as the cost of doing business. The time has come to make the connection between education reform and economic strength and get education policy right so we don’t let another generation slip through our fingers while other countries leave us in the dust.

For too long, as a state and a nation, we have stared at our navels while other countries zoomed ahead and actually prepared the next generation. We figured we could take it for granted that just as we have always produced the world’s leading innovators, so too would we continue to do so based only on the fact that we had in the past. History simply is not a viable economic growth strategy.

It’s shameful that we can’t fill open jobs in an economy like this. And it is deplorable that one’s ability to get a strong public education depends, in large part, on race, family income, or zip code. We have no excuse for not preparing our kids, all of our kids, to meet the demands of a 21st century economy. Education is an economic development strategy – the best one that’s out there. We should be redoubling our efforts to ensure that policy makers see economic development and education as two sides of the same coin, and look to them to guide states, localities, and the nation toward meaningful reforms that will prepare all of our kids for college, career, and a productive life.

Currently, Connecticut “enjoys” a 9% unemployment rate, a 20% high school drop-out rate, and the largest achievement gaps in the nation. In 2011, Governor Dannel Malloy focused his attention on the Nutmeg State’s budget and pressing need for new jobs. In doing so, he promised that 2012 would be “The Year for Education Reform.” After balancing the state’s budget and bringing all sides together to invest in job growth, we have to believe the governor means business when he sets his sights on education improvement this year. And we have to hope that he sees education reform as the primary driver for his economic plans.

We are encouraged by President Obama’s emphasis on workforce skills in his State of the Union address. K-12 education can play a significant role here but we have been concerned with the lack of clarification as to what “career” means in the preparation of students to be college and “career” ready. Does career refer to job skills? Because if it does, the rhetoric does not match the actions. Perkins money is one of the last remaining sources of federal funding for vocational education and over the last two years it has been cut by 10% by the Obama administration. While millions of dollars have been allocated to competitive grants like Race to the Top, the Tech-Prep component of Perkins has been eliminated. There is currently talk of a House Republican proposal that would consolidate all of Perkins dollars into a funding stream for workforce investment that the Governors would control. Will the elimination of Perkins be one of the few bi-partisan efforts?

We seem to have turned our backs on vocational education and training at the high school level and then bemoan the fact that we have a shortage of skilled workers that do not necessarily require a college diploma. How about some clarification on what is meant by “career ready” and if it is job-required skills training, then let’s say so.

The most notable education proposal in President Obama’s State of the Union address was a surprising one: He called on states to require students to stay in school until they graduate or turn 18. Increasing graduation rates is surely an important goal, but trying to reach it via mandate is not going to work. Drop out laws are punitive rather than supportive, and difficult to enforce; so why make them the focus?

Few students drop out of school because they don’t want an education. Students leave school for a variety of reasons but among the top is that they feel like they are not learning anything relevant.

It seems to me that the President should have instead called on states to both provide high schools with the resources and assistance needed to improve course rigor. He also should have talked about the support needed for struggling students and the preventative measures that can be taken by investing in the earliest years and grades. Students who are developmentally and cognitively ready for kindergarten are more likely to be reading on grade level by the end of third grade and on the path to achieve at high levels and graduate from high school.

Attacking the drop out crisis at both ends should in time lead to less of a need for costly remediation at the secondary level, making additional investment in early learning, birth through third grade, much easier.

In tough budget times, states want to get the most bang for their buck. Figuring out how to enforce drop out laws will not do that.

There is much that states, districts, and schools can do to help students reach graduation. States can provide free full-day kindergarten. Only about 10 states require school districts to offer it. Schools can help to smooth the transition from pre-K to kindergarten and elementary to middle school by encouraging schools to collaborate with their feeder schools and programs. School districts can help schools better address chronic absenteeism to make sure kids are in class. States can work with preparation programs to improve the quality of coursework and practical experiences, and work more closely with school districts to better meet their human capital needs.

President Obama’s strong focus on jobs is likely why the education section of his speech centered on high school graduation and higher education. Unfortunately, he did not call on Congress to reauthorize the long overdue Elementary and Secondary Education Act, nor did he mention early learning – a first for his State of the Union addresses. He also neglected to offer any other plan to address the drop out problem such as those above or otherwise. This leaves his graduation proposal more like forced retention or punishment rather than an aspiration. The costs to both schools and students are too much to bear.