Global Competitiveness vs. Summer Vacation

Okay everybody, please tell me what's worse: losing our national standard of living or giving up three weeks of our children's summer vacation? I know how I feel about this and so I'm pretty steamed by what I saw on television last night. First, some background...

In the July 25th issue of Fortune, Geoff Colvin has an excellent article questioning whether America and Americans can compete in "the relentless, global, tech-driven, cost-cutting struggle for business." Colvin's article presents a chilling case, and makes plain the potentially dire consequences if U.S. workers lose their competitiveness relative to the rest of the world. As Colvin writes:

The stakes are mammoth: Respectable analysts believe it is possible--not certain, but possible--that the U.S. standard of living, after decades of steady ascent, could stall or even begin to decline. More worrisome is the chance that if the world's most powerful nation finds itself getting poorer than richer, some kind of domestic or even global political crisis could follow.

We all know that America's public schools simply aren't getting the job done. For example, according to the Colvin article, America's 15-year olds are 28th in the world in mathematical achievement. That's right, 28th! So what does it say about our national priorities when the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams reports last night that parents are organizing "a grassroots effort to return to the traditional school year?" This myopic endeavor is being aided and abetted by some state legislators--local politicians who are more concerned with re-election than with the greater good of their states or our nation--who are passing bills preventing schools from starting "too early." What is going on here?

They say that parental involvement in education is a key element in student achievement. In this case, parental action is an obstacle to even the adequate preparation of their children for the future. I know that everyone enjoys their summer vacations, but those 12 consecutive weeks off from school (a period when kids often forget at least some of what they've learned) is just one of many, many aspects of the current public education system in the United States that must change if we are going to have any chance of remaining competitive in the years to come. I'm not a parent, but I am a product of public schools, and it is crystal clear to me that they need radical change and right now. Apparently, not everyone agrees.