Today's NYT front page story details the efforts of millions of Chinese families who sacrifice nearly everything to get a child into and through college. It notes the fervent belief in the power of education to move them out of poverty and into better jobs, and the brutal poverty that marks most lives in China. Here the pictures tell the story better than any words.
According to the US Department of Education, 18 million Americans attended post secondary institutions in 2009. Yet China's growing college graduation rate is expected to continue to outpace American graduation reaching 29 million by 2020 according to the OECD. Locally, Shattuck St. Mary's school has also experienced a rise in Chinese admissions from wealthy families seeking an advantage for their students by attending American boarding schools. One teacher there told me that the school has accepted more students than they really know what to do with. These students need extra language instruction and struggle to assimilate with other students. But the economics on both sides of the equation continue to increase their Chinese student population while the school struggles to meet their needs.
Some have labeled this the 'great brain race' as nations compete to create the most educated and hopefully employable population. Yet the NYT article notes that the 'flat world' doesn't even exist within China as rural students struggle with inadequate schools and prejudicial college admissions policies. Moreover, the article also notes that unemployment for college graduates remains very high. For those who do graduate, proposed US immigration policy changes would allow high skill workers to emigrate to America feeding our own high tech employment needs. In this respect, Friedman's flat world seems quite close in that many of us are competing for jobs against people from around the world.
As we head into The White Tiger, pay attention to the descriptions of rural poverty. In this sense, the dialogue in the novel between India and China is more than metaphorical. The OECD predictions don't show much of a rise in Indian post-secondary education in this decade, suggesting one way the China is moving ahead in that race.
