I definitely agree with most of the major premises of Weisman's speech, including:

(1) Education is not the reason for the economic problems of our nations businesses and industries. But education has been a convenient scapegoat for business and industry.

(2) Most of the training required of today's workers is the responsibilty of the employer, not the schools.

(3) The system of financing education through the local property tax is inequitable (see the card "Savage Inequalities").

(4) Our children are our responsibility. As Weisman says: "They are not our future. We are their future." We must provide the money necessary to fund an excellent and equal educational system for all children.

I don't embrace 100% his criticisms of business' and industry's concerns about education (i.e., jobs are becoming increasingly high-skilled, our poorly educated workers are not competitive, and business is spending billions on training).

I do believe that there is some truth to these concerns. The overall skill level of today's jobs is increasing. We do have many uneducated workers and they do contribute to an inability to compete with foreign nations, and business does in many respects provide "remedial" training or develop very positive partnerships with local school districts.

Overall, though, I think that he and Kozol are "right on" when discussing the primary needs of education.