Published August 2001

UW official: State education system behind times

By Kathy Day
Herald Economy Writer

MILL CREEK — Snohomish County Economic Development Council members recently gathered to find out whether the area is providing high-technology companies with the qualified workers they need to succeed.

A resounding “no” was the answer given by Edward Lazowska, Chairman of the University of Washington’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

“We are educating for the last generation of jobs — manufacturing,” he said. “That’s not where education should be going.”

As the EDC presses its efforts to attract technology companies by sending representatives to events such as the recent gathering of the nation’s biotechnology executives in San Diego and assisting companies with training grants and programs, it also is directing energy at the schools, EDC President Deborah Knutson said.

She presented an award to the staff at Meadowdale Elementary School of Lynnwood, which has an especially successful technology program.

“Teachers are stepping up to the challenge of teaching technology,” she said, noting that they have found ways to make “technology a vehicle to make education fun.”

One reason for the success is business partnerships, which the EDC plans to expand in the future, she added.

But after that bright spot of the luncheon held last month at the Mill Creek Country Club, Lazowska brought the crowd back to earth with statistics comparing the number of technology jobs — among the highest in the nation — to the number of college graduates with computer science and engineering degrees — among the lowest.

He asked the group what they thought the fastest growing college major was. When no one answered, he did it himself: parks, recreation and leisure.

Once, goods coming from the area were the result of “physical content” such as lumber mills, he said. Then they moved to the stage of a balance between physical and intellectual with aerospace manufacturing.

Now, he added, with software “the content is almost entirely intellectual. By and large, that’s different than what the state (education system) is offering.”

Technology companies are looking for a different type of education. While “skills training” from technical programs in high schools — which he labeled the “2000 version of the auto shop class” — and online programs may teach the immediate skills of a job, analytical skills make one a lifelong learner, he said.

“We’ve got to produce a generation prepared to contribute and benefit,” he said. “Washington state has its ass backwards. We have to decide, do we want $30 car tabs or an educational system? We’ve got to make smarter decisions or we’ll be in trouble in this state.”

Related: EDC President Deborah Knutson applauds Meadowdale Elementary's use of technology

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