This week there is an international education conference being held in New York. The conference follows the release of the results of the Program for International Student Assessment exam. The U.S., not surprisingly, did not fare so well comparatively in educating our children.

Out of 34 countries our students ranked 25 in math, 17th in science, and 14th in reading. Frankly, we deserved no better results.

Education is a national issue, not simply a local issue, as long as we must compete globally for jobs and technological innovation.

Milwaukee must not only compete with Detroit in terms of an educated population, but with New Delhi and Singapore and Shanghai. For talent is now resourced worldwide.

So while some would close the federal Department of Education in favor of entirely local control that is not unlike wishing for horses and buggies to replace cars on the highways … naive and illogical.

The brief history of the U.S. is repleat with examples of innovation and dynamic change though, so why can’t we seem to overcome our lagging scores in educational comparisons?

In part, because both of our political parties use the topic as little more than political fodder to divide the nation on education.

Democrats, for their part, seem unwilling to confront the issues that center around the failures of our current system, instead choosing to believe that spending more will change outcomes.

That approach has failed.

Republicans have chosen to attack the teachers, suggest money has little effect and advocate charter schools, with their irregular results, as the solution when home schooling is not an option. This represents not so much an approach as an attack.

Neither party is offering real solutions to the problems we face in education.

First, let’s just get to the fact that we do not pay teachers enough to recruit the best talent. I know, conservatives in a number of states have suggested our teachers are little more than high paid thugs. They are not.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports that American teachers work more hours than their international counterparts, 1,080 teaching hours compared to an average of 794 hours internationally.

American teachers earn an average of $43,633 compared to an OECD average of $39,007. But when compared based on upon the comparative wealth of the nations examined, a U.S. teacher with 15 years experience makes a salary of 96 percent of the country’s gross domestic product per capita.

On average OECD teachers with comparable experience make 117% of GDP per capita. At the high end of the scale, Korea, ranking number two in educational outcomes, pays 221 percent of GDP per capita.

Another yardstick of measure is what jobs pay American college grads the most, at least partially indicating what careers our best students may flow to for financial security.

The number one job is Investment banker, paying $112,000 for a new grad. Software Engineer pays $84,000 for a graduate. A teacher, not in the top ten paying new grad jobs, can anticipate making $43,000.

So consider if you wanted the very best graduates from our educational system…that would mean you would have to offer teaching jobs with competitive salaries to lure those graduates.

Education in America is expensive, but it is not going to teachers.

If we ever want the best and the brightest to teach our future leaders, we have to end the political posturing and begin confronting the real challenges we face to rediscover excellence.

We need great teachers, innovation, incentives for excellence, and real support from parents, the community and the nation.

Jim Crawford is retired educator and political enthusiast living here in the Tri-State.