Education

But for all of Princeton’s contributions to education reform, I’d like to see the University do more to meet public education’s most fundamental challenge: finding 1.6 million great teachers in the next decade as the baby boom bubble of teachers retires.

Students for Education Reform, an national organization launched by Catharine Bellinger ’12 and Alexis Morin ’12 in September 2009 that strives to engage student leaders with issues surrounding education reform, recently announced its expansion onto 13 new college campuses this year.

The envy of the world, the argument goes, our colleges and universities will preserve American primacy for decades to come, as they churn out top-notch research, technological innovations and graduates well prepared for the global marketplace. 2011 has been a bad year for that cohort.

Among the many things the American educational system needs are stronger intellectual ties across the unnaturally large institutional divide between 12th grade (and what comes before) and freshman year in college (and what comes after).

The most effective counter to autocracy in the 21st century may have nothing at all to do with weapons or diplomacy. It might be as simple as building classrooms.