Jenkins (2005) wrote with a liberal slanted article that predicts the US will fall behind the education of the rest of the world due to a trend in the federal government to cut funding for public schools. According to the article, students will be consigned "to low employment opportunities and poverty" (¶ 4). Jenkins is concerned about the possible elimination of the Perkins Loan program. Rotberg explains the political changes as a natural, unpleasant, tradeoff. Rothberg (2005) illustrates the tradeoff by making the point, "there is [...] an unspoken premise that countries with effective education systems [...] have gotten it right without ever having had to make difficult choices or cope with negative consequences" (¶ 2).

The applicable trend in Rothberg's paper is the change in South Africa of distributing education funds in equal amounts to each student rather than by race. The tradeoff, or issue, involved the high- and middle-class white students getting a poorer education. The application of this type change in the US has been a similar trend for more affluent families to send their children to private school. South Africa has been able to curtail some mid-class families moving to private school by encouraging the families to contribute to the public school. China and Russia are also given as examples, as countries who recently decentralized their education systems. Just as China now has funding inequality, so would a parent rather send their child to a Seminole County, FL school over a Orange County, FL school since Seminole County has a higher-income tax base to fund the school district.

Berman and Singer (2005) reported on a business trend. Boards of major corporations are more cautious when voting on corporate mergers. Accounting "corrections" by the likes of Enron and MCI have made the boards fearful of inheriting hidden accounting problems. Even though the most famous accounting blunders have been based in the US, it has created merger hesitation on a global scale. The US CPA license now requires public accountants to take an additional test on ethics before becoming certified. Training and education in the US will require better indoctrination of ethics and moral code.

A loss of foreign talent in the US is McGrath's (2004) concern. She documented a significant decrease in the number of international students attending graduate programs in several popular US-based universities. China and Australia have recently had much more popular higher education programs than in the past, during the US's "post-World War II period as a magnet for worldwide talent" (McGrath, 2004, ¶ 2). The US will likely have to respond by expediting student visas and making graduate assistantships easier to attain.

The speech by Wishard concentrates on globalization, as does the paper by Mahler (2004). The solution in the speech is to develop a far more common view of the world than "my nation", "my race", or "my religion" (Wishard). Much of the speech is a history lesson which does not outline how to develop a common world view, though certainly learning about other cultures is one of the first steps to understanding why one culture hates another or why two people don't get along. Wishard also identifies developments in technology and spiritual orientations as areas, that with understanding could become unifying elements of the world. Who knows, perhaps one day a common world view would result in the combined views of Christians, Muslims, and Jews as a unified mish-mash of the best parts of each background. Certainly at some point, globalization will result in a common form of government to accommodate efficient global business transactions.

Mahler (2004) is more concerned with new competition as a result of globalization, which was also identified by Alan Greenspan (2005) in his recent testimony. Both see a brighter side of competition as companies are forced to work harder and be more creative to develop new innovations. The demand of more competition will be based on the quality of training and education people have to use as tools. Greenspan recognized the proposed cut in federal education funding, then compared it to politics of his youth. He reminisced about time 40 years ago when politicians predicted the crumbling of the US in the wake of other countries' development. Instead, the US has overcome major problems and remains a leader in the world.

Summary:

Trends identified in the research were as follows:

1. The US federal government is discussing decreases in budgeting for public education while the United Nations is emphasizing education
2. Economic and cultural inequalities are creating inequalities in educational resources
3. Corporate accounting falsifications have created hesitancy in corporate mergers
4. Non-US nations are more attractive as centers for graduate education
5. Globalization will result in the development of more common world views
6. Globalization will place a higher demand on education and training

Issues include:

1. Inequalities in education funding
2. Poor corporate ethics decisions have lead to the hurting of others

References

Berman, D. K. & Singer, J. (2005, Jan 31). Big Deals Are Back; P&G-Gillette Is Latest Signal That Firms Will Spend Again, But With Caution In Mind. Wall Street Journal, C1.

Greenspan, A. (2005, June 9). Fed. Chair Alan Greenspan at House Joint Economic Committee Hearing [Television broadcast]. Washington, DC: C-SPAN.

Jenkins, K. (2005, March 24). Budget Cuts Leave U.S. Out of Global Progress. Black Issues in Higher Education, 22(3), 36.

Mahler, V. A. (2004, November). Economic Globalization, Domestic Politics, and Income Inequality in the Developed Countries: A Cross-National Study. Comparative Political Studies, 37(9), 1025-1053.

McGrath, A. (2004, November 11). A Loss of foreign talent. U.S. News & World Report, 137(18), 76.

Rotberg, I. C. (2005, April). A Special Section of International Education - Tradeoffs, Societal Values, and School Reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(8), 661.

Wishard, V. (2005, May). Understanding our Moment in History. Vital Speeches of the Day, 71(14), 442-448.