專欄作者
教育和汽車業改革，奧巴馬的秘密武器
托馬斯··弗里德曼 2012年10月24日
截止目前，競選辯論中給我印象最深刻的有一件事：奧巴馬總統對我心目中他最具創新性的兩項國內計劃講得極少。雖然我不知道奧巴馬醫改(Obamacare)會不會見效，但我確信我鍾愛的這兩項奧巴馬計劃將是變革性的。
奧巴馬在教育界的“力爭上遊”計劃(Race to the Top)已經引發了全國範圍的校園改革浪潮，而他在汽車界的“力爭上遊”計劃也已經在汽車材料、引擎和軟件業激發了革新浪潮。後者要求提高美國製造的汽車 和卡車的油耗標準，由目前的每加侖27.5英里提升到2025年的54.5英里。奧巴馬在上一場辯論中簡單地提及了這兩項計劃，但我想多談一些，因為我認 為它們代表了財政緊縮時代進步政治的未來：政府使用有限的資金和逐步提高的績效標準來激勵各州和企業創新，探索更好的經濟、教育和環保實踐。
奧巴馬若是對民眾說這麼多的話會很嚇唬人，但他在校園和汽車兩大領域的“力爭上遊”卻基於同一個殘酷的現實，也就是蓋茨基金會(Gates Foundation)的高級教育專家斯蒂芬妮·桑福德(Stefanie Sanford)所說的，“高薪酬、中等技能要求的工作崗位已經沒有了”。不管是製造業還是服務業，僅存的高薪酬崗位將是高技能崗位，要求更多、更好的教 育。而奧巴馬的兩個“力爭上遊”計劃的目標正是同時製造出更多的高技能崗位和高技能工作者。
在校園“力爭上遊”計劃中，教育部長阿恩·鄧肯(Arne Duncan)在前任瑪格麗特·斯佩林斯(Margaret Spellings)和喬治·W·布殊總統(George W. Bush)良好工作的基礎上更進一步。布殊實施了《不讓孩子掉隊》法案(No Child Left Behind)，儘管不完美，但它仍然是教育改革的轉折點。因為該法案讓我們看到了數據，不僅知道每個學校的表現，還知道這些學校里最有可能不及格的學生 的表現。如果沒有這些，教師和校長責任制的教育改革將無從入手。
鄧肯部長對我解釋了“力爭上遊”的目的。他說的基本意思是，在我們今天生活的世界裡，非常好的高薪工作要求更多的技能，因此我們需要讓儘可能多的學 校使我們的學生“達到準備好進入大學和職場的水平”，比較的對象應該是世界各國最優秀的學生，因為他們是我們的孩子將要與之競爭的人。鄧肯認為，“我們必 須通過教育來實現經濟改善。通往中產階級的道路如今必須通過學校教育。”
因此，“力爭上遊”計劃面向全國50個州，其中能提出最佳四年教育改革方案的州將能得到聯邦政府43.5億美元的投資經費。這些方案應當包含如下元 素：1)數據採集系統，這些數據應能體現學生的表現、退學率、畢業率，以及畢業後進入大學和職業學校的成功率，使學校對學生負責；2)教師和校長的評估與 支持系統，以及獎勵優秀教師、學習先進經驗並淘汰落後教師的機制，其核心就是將教師提升為具有吸引力的職業；3)通過改變管理和文化，改善後進學校的計 劃；4)在閱讀和數學方面設立的既能為大學和職場做好準備、又能與國際接軌的標準。
要得出確切的結論還為時尚早，但鄧肯指出了一些早期的正面結果。大約4500個州及地方教師工會成員已經加入了所在州的改革提案，顯示出合作意願。 鄧肯稱，約25%的後進學校“在第一年就顯示出在閱讀或數學方面取得了兩位數的進步，而且約三分之二顯示了改進的跡象”。此外，“違紀事件也大幅降低 了”。
在計劃實施的兩年時間裡，46個州提交了改革方案，儘管其中僅有12個最好的州贏得了7000萬到7億美元不等的經費（經費多少取決於學生人數）， 但那些沒有贏得經費的州也在實施它們的改革計劃。鄧肯說，由於45個州和哥倫比亞特區在閱讀和數學方面採用了相似的更高的教學標準（稱為“共同核心”）， “馬薩諸塞州和密西西比州的孩子現在的考核標準一致了，這還是歷史上的第一次。”
鄧肯補充說，很多情況下，“那些一分錢資助也沒得到的州也實現了與拿到1億美元的州同樣程度”的變革。正如負責改善新奧爾良後進學校的 FirstLine Schools的首席執行官傑伊·奧爾特曼(Jay Altman)所說，“路易斯安那州沒能贏得‘力爭上遊’的經費，但我們差得不多，而且這一過程激勵了我們和其他州來全盤考慮教育改革，而不是進行零碎的 修補。”
奧巴馬還計劃使2025年的車輛燃油效率提升一倍。該計劃由國家環境保護局(Environmental Protection Agency)和交通部(Department of Transportation)牽頭，由於每家汽車公司都在想辦法每年將燃油效率提升5%，計劃已經在促使底特律進行更多的創新。能源創新公司 (Energy Innovation)的首席執行官哈爾·哈維(Hal Harvey)說，“《汽車新聞》(Automotive News)曾經塞滿了關於失敗經銷商和積壓產品的負面報道，但如今都是一個個關於技術的報道，全都是關於提升燃油效率。引擎、傳動裝置、電子系統和先進材 料，新的解決方案中包含所有這些部分。工程師總算是又有活幹了！”
塞拉俱樂部(Sierra Club)的前執行主管卡爾·波普(Carl Pope)注意到，羅姆尼反對奧巴馬的汽車“力爭上遊”計劃，而且誓言要通過Keystone XL石油管線進口更多加拿大油砂田的石油。波普說，“羅姆想捨棄我國最廉價、最清潔的石油，也就是我們通過更高的燃油效率在底特律節省的油，代之以從加拿 大油砂產出的世界上最昂貴、最污染的油。只有科氏兄弟（Koch brothers，美國石油大亨——譯註）才會想出這樣的事來。”
不錯，更高燃油效率的汽車的成本會稍許升高，但節省的錢會是成本增加的幾倍。國家環境保護局預計，到2025年，美國家庭將節省1.8萬億美元的燃 油成本，並且每天將減少210萬桶的石油消費量，相當於我們目前每天從石油輸出國組織(OPEC)國家進口石油量的一半。從現在到2025年銷售的車輛 中，其生命周期中的溫室氣體排放量將減少60億噸，比美國2010年的二氧化碳排放總量還多。
但請記住：這些都是秘密。不要告訴任何人。
奧巴馬在教育界的“力爭上遊”計劃(Race to the Top)已經引發了全國範圍的校園改革浪潮，而他在汽車界的“力爭上遊”計劃也已經在汽車材料、引擎和軟件業激發了革新浪潮。後者要求提高美國製造的汽車 和卡車的油耗標準，由目前的每加侖27.5英里提升到2025年的54.5英里。奧巴馬在上一場辯論中簡單地提及了這兩項計劃，但我想多談一些，因為我認 為它們代表了財政緊縮時代進步政治的未來：政府使用有限的資金和逐步提高的績效標準來激勵各州和企業創新，探索更好的經濟、教育和環保實踐。
奧巴馬若是對民眾說這麼多的話會很嚇唬人，但他在校園和汽車兩大領域的“力爭上遊”卻基於同一個殘酷的現實，也就是蓋茨基金會(Gates Foundation)的高級教育專家斯蒂芬妮·桑福德(Stefanie Sanford)所說的，“高薪酬、中等技能要求的工作崗位已經沒有了”。不管是製造業還是服務業，僅存的高薪酬崗位將是高技能崗位，要求更多、更好的教 育。而奧巴馬的兩個“力爭上遊”計劃的目標正是同時製造出更多的高技能崗位和高技能工作者。
在校園“力爭上遊”計劃中，教育部長阿恩·鄧肯(Arne Duncan)在前任瑪格麗特·斯佩林斯(Margaret Spellings)和喬治·W·布殊總統(George W. Bush)良好工作的基礎上更進一步。布殊實施了《不讓孩子掉隊》法案(No Child Left Behind)，儘管不完美，但它仍然是教育改革的轉折點。因為該法案讓我們看到了數據，不僅知道每個學校的表現，還知道這些學校里最有可能不及格的學生 的表現。如果沒有這些，教師和校長責任制的教育改革將無從入手。
鄧肯部長對我解釋了“力爭上遊”的目的。他說的基本意思是，在我們今天生活的世界裡，非常好的高薪工作要求更多的技能，因此我們需要讓儘可能多的學 校使我們的學生“達到準備好進入大學和職場的水平”，比較的對象應該是世界各國最優秀的學生，因為他們是我們的孩子將要與之競爭的人。鄧肯認為，“我們必 須通過教育來實現經濟改善。通往中產階級的道路如今必須通過學校教育。”
因此，“力爭上遊”計劃面向全國50個州，其中能提出最佳四年教育改革方案的州將能得到聯邦政府43.5億美元的投資經費。這些方案應當包含如下元 素：1)數據採集系統，這些數據應能體現學生的表現、退學率、畢業率，以及畢業後進入大學和職業學校的成功率，使學校對學生負責；2)教師和校長的評估與 支持系統，以及獎勵優秀教師、學習先進經驗並淘汰落後教師的機制，其核心就是將教師提升為具有吸引力的職業；3)通過改變管理和文化，改善後進學校的計 劃；4)在閱讀和數學方面設立的既能為大學和職場做好準備、又能與國際接軌的標準。
要得出確切的結論還為時尚早，但鄧肯指出了一些早期的正面結果。大約4500個州及地方教師工會成員已經加入了所在州的改革提案，顯示出合作意願。 鄧肯稱，約25%的後進學校“在第一年就顯示出在閱讀或數學方面取得了兩位數的進步，而且約三分之二顯示了改進的跡象”。此外，“違紀事件也大幅降低 了”。
在計劃實施的兩年時間裡，46個州提交了改革方案，儘管其中僅有12個最好的州贏得了7000萬到7億美元不等的經費（經費多少取決於學生人數）， 但那些沒有贏得經費的州也在實施它們的改革計劃。鄧肯說，由於45個州和哥倫比亞特區在閱讀和數學方面採用了相似的更高的教學標準（稱為“共同核心”）， “馬薩諸塞州和密西西比州的孩子現在的考核標準一致了，這還是歷史上的第一次。”
鄧肯補充說，很多情況下，“那些一分錢資助也沒得到的州也實現了與拿到1億美元的州同樣程度”的變革。正如負責改善新奧爾良後進學校的 FirstLine Schools的首席執行官傑伊·奧爾特曼(Jay Altman)所說，“路易斯安那州沒能贏得‘力爭上遊’的經費，但我們差得不多，而且這一過程激勵了我們和其他州來全盤考慮教育改革，而不是進行零碎的 修補。”
奧巴馬還計劃使2025年的車輛燃油效率提升一倍。該計劃由國家環境保護局(Environmental Protection Agency)和交通部(Department of Transportation)牽頭，由於每家汽車公司都在想辦法每年將燃油效率提升5%，計劃已經在促使底特律進行更多的創新。能源創新公司 (Energy Innovation)的首席執行官哈爾·哈維(Hal Harvey)說，“《汽車新聞》(Automotive News)曾經塞滿了關於失敗經銷商和積壓產品的負面報道，但如今都是一個個關於技術的報道，全都是關於提升燃油效率。引擎、傳動裝置、電子系統和先進材 料，新的解決方案中包含所有這些部分。工程師總算是又有活幹了！”
塞拉俱樂部(Sierra Club)的前執行主管卡爾·波普(Carl Pope)注意到，羅姆尼反對奧巴馬的汽車“力爭上遊”計劃，而且誓言要通過Keystone XL石油管線進口更多加拿大油砂田的石油。波普說，“羅姆想捨棄我國最廉價、最清潔的石油，也就是我們通過更高的燃油效率在底特律節省的油，代之以從加拿 大油砂產出的世界上最昂貴、最污染的油。只有科氏兄弟（Koch brothers，美國石油大亨——譯註）才會想出這樣的事來。”
不錯，更高燃油效率的汽車的成本會稍許升高，但節省的錢會是成本增加的幾倍。國家環境保護局預計，到2025年，美國家庭將節省1.8萬億美元的燃 油成本，並且每天將減少210萬桶的石油消費量，相當於我們目前每天從石油輸出國組織(OPEC)國家進口石油量的一半。從現在到2025年銷售的車輛 中，其生命周期中的溫室氣體排放量將減少60億噸，比美國2010年的二氧化碳排放總量還多。
但請記住：這些都是秘密。不要告訴任何人。
翻譯：黃錚
Obama’s Best-Kept Secrets
October 24, 2012
ONE thing that has struck me about the debates so far is how little President Obama
has conveyed about what I think are his two most innovative domestic
programs. While I don’t know how Obamacare will turn out, I’m certain
that my two favorite Obama initiatives will be transformative.
His Race to the Top program in education has already set off a nationwide wave of school reform, and his Race to the Top in vehicles — raising the mileage standards for American-made car and truck fleets from 27.5 miles per gallon to 54.5 m.p.g. between now and 2025 — is already spurring a wave of innovation in auto materials, engines and software. Obama mentioned both briefly in the last debate, but I want to talk about them more, because I think they are the future of progressive politics in this age of austerity: government using its limited funds and steadily rising performance standards to stimulate states and businesses to innovate better economic, educational and environmental practices.
While it is too scary for Obama to tell people in so many words, his races to the top in schools and cars are both based on one brutal fact: “The high-wage, medium-skilled job is over,” as Stefanie Sanford, a senior education expert at the Gates Foundation, puts it. The only high-wage jobs, whether in manufacturing or services, will be high-skilled ones, requiring more and better education, and Obama’s two races to the top aim to produce both more high-skill jobs and more high-skilled workers.
In the Race to the Top in schools, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has built on the good works of his predecessor, Margaret Spellings, and President George W. Bush, who put in place No Child Left Behind. Though never perfect, No Child Left Behind was still a game-changer for education reform because it gave us the data to see not only how individual schools were doing but how the most at-risk students were doing within those schools. Without that, educational reform based on accountability of teachers and principals could never start.
The purpose of Race to the Top, Secretary Duncan explained to me, was basically to say that if we now live in a world where every good high-wage job requires more skill, we need to get as many of our schools as possible educating their students “to college- and career-ready standards,” measured against the best in the world, because that is whom our kids will be competing against. “We have to educate our way to a better economy,” Duncan argues. “The path to the middle class today runs straight through the classroom.”
So, Race to the Top said to all 50 states, we have a $4.35 billion fund that Washington will invest in the states that come up with the best four-year education reform plans that have these components: 1) systems for data-gathering on student performance, dropout rates, graduation rates and post-graduation college and vocational school success, so schools are held accountable for what happens to their students; 2) systems for teacher and principal evaluation and support, as well as systems to reward great teachers, learn from their best practices and move out those at the bottom — essentially systems that help elevate teaching into an attractive profession; 3) systems that propose turning around failing schools by changing the management and culture; 4) systems that set college- and career-ready, internationally benchmarked standards for reading and math.
IT is too early to draw any firm conclusions, but Duncan points to some early positives. Some 4,500 state and local teachers’ union affiliates have signed onto their state’s reform proposals, showing they want to be partners. Roughly 25 percent of the turnaround schools, Duncan said, “have already showed double-digit increases in reading or math in their first year and about two-thirds showed gains.” There have also been “huge reductions of discipline incidents.”
Although, over the two years of the program, 46 states submitted reform blueprints — and only the 12 best won grants from $70 million to $700 million, depending on the size of their student populations — even states that did not win have been implementing their proposals anyway. And because 45 states and the District of Columbia adopted similar higher academic standards (known as the “common core”) for reading and math, “for the first time in our history a kid in Massachusetts and a kid in Mississippi are now being measured by the same yardstick,” said Duncan.
In many cases, we have seen as much reform from those “who did not get a nickel as those who got $100 million,” Duncan added. As Jay Altman, the chief executive of FirstLine Schools, which manages the turnarounds of failing schools in New Orleans, put it, “Louisiana ended up not winning Race to the Top, but we got close, and the process stimulated Louisiana and other states to think more broadly about educational reform rather than just approach it piecemeal.”
As for Obama’s doubling of vehicle mileage by 2025, led by his Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation, it’s already driving more innovation in Detroit, as each car company figures out how it will improve mileage by 5 percent every year. The auto industry’s main newspaper, “Automotive News, used to be a sad collection of stories of failing dealerships and excess inventory,” notes Hal Harvey, the chief executive of Energy Innovation. “Now it is one technology story after another, all aimed at increasing fuel efficiency. Engines, transmissions, electrical systems, advanced materials are all in the midst of new revolutions. Finally the engineers are back at work!”
Carl Pope, the former executive director of the Sierra Club, notes that Mitt Romney rejects Obama’s auto Race to the Top and is vowing to import more oil from the Canadian tar sands through the Keystone XL pipeline. “So Romney wants to throw away our cheapest, cleanest oil — the stuff we make in Detroit through greater mileage efficiency — and replace it with the world’s most expensive and dirty oil from the Canadian tar sands,” says Pope. “That’s a swap only the Koch brothers could dream up.”
Yes, the costs for cars with higher miles per gallon will rise a touch, but the savings will be manyfold that amount. The Environmental Protection Agency projects families will save $1.8 trillion in fuel costs and reduce oil consumption by 2.1 million barrels per day by 2025, which is equivalent to one-half of the oil that we currently import from OPEC countries every day. It will cut six billion metric tons of greenhouse gases over the lifetimes of the vehicles sold through 2025 — more than the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the U.S. in 2010.
But remember: It’s all a secret. Don’t tell anyone.
His Race to the Top program in education has already set off a nationwide wave of school reform, and his Race to the Top in vehicles — raising the mileage standards for American-made car and truck fleets from 27.5 miles per gallon to 54.5 m.p.g. between now and 2025 — is already spurring a wave of innovation in auto materials, engines and software. Obama mentioned both briefly in the last debate, but I want to talk about them more, because I think they are the future of progressive politics in this age of austerity: government using its limited funds and steadily rising performance standards to stimulate states and businesses to innovate better economic, educational and environmental practices.
While it is too scary for Obama to tell people in so many words, his races to the top in schools and cars are both based on one brutal fact: “The high-wage, medium-skilled job is over,” as Stefanie Sanford, a senior education expert at the Gates Foundation, puts it. The only high-wage jobs, whether in manufacturing or services, will be high-skilled ones, requiring more and better education, and Obama’s two races to the top aim to produce both more high-skill jobs and more high-skilled workers.
In the Race to the Top in schools, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has built on the good works of his predecessor, Margaret Spellings, and President George W. Bush, who put in place No Child Left Behind. Though never perfect, No Child Left Behind was still a game-changer for education reform because it gave us the data to see not only how individual schools were doing but how the most at-risk students were doing within those schools. Without that, educational reform based on accountability of teachers and principals could never start.
The purpose of Race to the Top, Secretary Duncan explained to me, was basically to say that if we now live in a world where every good high-wage job requires more skill, we need to get as many of our schools as possible educating their students “to college- and career-ready standards,” measured against the best in the world, because that is whom our kids will be competing against. “We have to educate our way to a better economy,” Duncan argues. “The path to the middle class today runs straight through the classroom.”
So, Race to the Top said to all 50 states, we have a $4.35 billion fund that Washington will invest in the states that come up with the best four-year education reform plans that have these components: 1) systems for data-gathering on student performance, dropout rates, graduation rates and post-graduation college and vocational school success, so schools are held accountable for what happens to their students; 2) systems for teacher and principal evaluation and support, as well as systems to reward great teachers, learn from their best practices and move out those at the bottom — essentially systems that help elevate teaching into an attractive profession; 3) systems that propose turning around failing schools by changing the management and culture; 4) systems that set college- and career-ready, internationally benchmarked standards for reading and math.
IT is too early to draw any firm conclusions, but Duncan points to some early positives. Some 4,500 state and local teachers’ union affiliates have signed onto their state’s reform proposals, showing they want to be partners. Roughly 25 percent of the turnaround schools, Duncan said, “have already showed double-digit increases in reading or math in their first year and about two-thirds showed gains.” There have also been “huge reductions of discipline incidents.”
Although, over the two years of the program, 46 states submitted reform blueprints — and only the 12 best won grants from $70 million to $700 million, depending on the size of their student populations — even states that did not win have been implementing their proposals anyway. And because 45 states and the District of Columbia adopted similar higher academic standards (known as the “common core”) for reading and math, “for the first time in our history a kid in Massachusetts and a kid in Mississippi are now being measured by the same yardstick,” said Duncan.
In many cases, we have seen as much reform from those “who did not get a nickel as those who got $100 million,” Duncan added. As Jay Altman, the chief executive of FirstLine Schools, which manages the turnarounds of failing schools in New Orleans, put it, “Louisiana ended up not winning Race to the Top, but we got close, and the process stimulated Louisiana and other states to think more broadly about educational reform rather than just approach it piecemeal.”
As for Obama’s doubling of vehicle mileage by 2025, led by his Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation, it’s already driving more innovation in Detroit, as each car company figures out how it will improve mileage by 5 percent every year. The auto industry’s main newspaper, “Automotive News, used to be a sad collection of stories of failing dealerships and excess inventory,” notes Hal Harvey, the chief executive of Energy Innovation. “Now it is one technology story after another, all aimed at increasing fuel efficiency. Engines, transmissions, electrical systems, advanced materials are all in the midst of new revolutions. Finally the engineers are back at work!”
Carl Pope, the former executive director of the Sierra Club, notes that Mitt Romney rejects Obama’s auto Race to the Top and is vowing to import more oil from the Canadian tar sands through the Keystone XL pipeline. “So Romney wants to throw away our cheapest, cleanest oil — the stuff we make in Detroit through greater mileage efficiency — and replace it with the world’s most expensive and dirty oil from the Canadian tar sands,” says Pope. “That’s a swap only the Koch brothers could dream up.”
Yes, the costs for cars with higher miles per gallon will rise a touch, but the savings will be manyfold that amount. The Environmental Protection Agency projects families will save $1.8 trillion in fuel costs and reduce oil consumption by 2.1 million barrels per day by 2025, which is equivalent to one-half of the oil that we currently import from OPEC countries every day. It will cut six billion metric tons of greenhouse gases over the lifetimes of the vehicles sold through 2025 — more than the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the U.S. in 2010.
But remember: It’s all a secret. Don’t tell anyone.
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