The journey of my career has included business where I was a corporate
attorney and advisor and a business owner and as a government official
- first as Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce and Tourism, next as Tulsa
Mayor, and now as Oklahoma Governor Henry’s Chief of Education
Strategy and Innovation. The view from each road I traveled has more
in common than you might imagine. The successes of each are wholly
dependent one on the other. These three sectors must work with common
goals so that our country remains competitive in a global economy.

Business must have a competitively educated and critically thinking
workforce. Government must also have highly skilled employees so that
states and cities can perform core services with efficiency – to
stretch strained resources, and transparency – to maintain the
confidence of citizens. Public education must provide the framework
and the development for it all.

Education is no longer the little red schoolhouse that we attended
from 8:00 to 3:00, Monday through Friday, nine months a year. The days
of most families having a “stay at home” parent is not a reality. The
day when America was producing the most scientists and engineers is
slipping out of our reach. U.S. students ranked 21st out of 30 OECD
nations in science and 25th out of 30 in math. Our achievement was
most comparable to students in Iceland, the Slovak Republic, Spain and
Portugal.

We must all take a hand in reinventing public education to insure more
graduates are ready for post-high school education and the workforce.
We must be bold and decisive and act without delay.

1. We must implement data driven change.

2. We must hold teaching up as one of the most important jobs in the
nation and work to recruit the best and the brightest at every level
of education.

3. We must provide educational leaders with the authority and
resources to lead their schools to high achievement, and hold them
accountable for the results.

4. We must provide assessments and accessible data, so we know if
change is working.

5. We must have the flexibility to adapt if changes that are launched
do not increase student learning.

6. Chalkboards must be replaced with keyboards. Technology needs to
drive change in education.

7. We must emphasize entrepreneurship in the way our schools are run
and in the education of our children.

There are many other ingredients in the recipe for success in
education. But if you look at the seven I have listed, you will notice
that they are all ingredients for success in business as well.

We must each shoulder the challenge — and drive these changes for
success in education. It is important for our children and our
country’s future depends on it more than any other action we can take.
You need the recruit the best employees for your business to be
successful. So, you must help take responsibility to insure our
children have the best education to become the best employees and
business owners. Our future success requires it!