Overview
Overview
The Gen Next Foundation is focused on these three issue points
because we have to be. To excel at one means we have to excel at all three. As
we look to the future, we must be prepared, competitive, and safe—not one of
the three, all three.
This means we need to transform a broken school system that
settles with one in three high school students failing. For the first time in American History our children are being born into
a world where they will not be better educated than their parents.
As we’re failing to educate our kids, we’re also failing to
invest in their futures. Instead,
we borrow from them and create crippling levels of debt. Today, future generations in the U.S. are less likely than future generations
in other countries to surpass their parents’ income and quality of life. This is not a recipe for economic
growth or opportunity. We need to protect our country’s most precious commodity
– our competitiveness, freedom, and innovation – and make sure that we continue to set global
standards.
The ability of the U.S. to produce talent and economic power has
been directly correlated to an ability to protect itself and pursue its
interests. Yet, America’s
role in the world is changing amidst new and complex security challenges.
Today we look at a future with a less educated, less financially
stable, and less ambitious society that is facing new threats to prosperity and
security
Indeed, each generation has it’s own challenges, and their lives
are invariably shaped by the decisions made before them. We take that responsibility seriously,
so we’re here to help lead in that effort.
Economic Opportunity
Economic Opportunity
We must find the
best ideas, leaders, and policies that promote entrepreneurship, free
enterprise, and the smartening government's role. We must implement a
competitive tax code and regulatory system, eliminate borrowing against the
future for indulgences of the past, and cultivate a culture of individual
responsibility and accountability.
In supporting a
culture of economic freedom, we know the result will be opportunity, innovation,
ambition, self reliance, work ethic and a stronger
economy overall.
GNF encourages
policies that promote entrepreneurship and growth, as well as well as the
highest educated work force. We
believe in enabling and developing the capability of the U.S. to be competitive
in the global marketplace.
Education
Education
Our education system has not evolved since the nineteenth
century. The needs of our economy are much different than they were long ago.
The jobs of the future will require our kids to be highly skilled and
highly-educated, not only to keep up with the rest of the world, but also to
surpass it. But only 1 in 3 students graduate high school and only 1 in 3 are
prepared for college. This has to change.
At any level of
education we benefit from offering incentives for good teachers: recruiting and
rewarding the most talented teachers and maintaining focus on student
performance and results.
“If we eliminated the
lowest performing five to 10 percent of teachers, we could have the solid
public education system we had decades ago” – Waiting for Superman, 2010
Curriculum at each
level must be rigorous, forward thinking, and internationally
benchmarked. We must increase the completion of advanced education, as
well as a performance focus on understanding international economic and
political arrangements.
Moreover,
transformational change cannot occur without rethinking the way we educate our
kids for the 21st century.
Every feature of our educational system must be on the table for review:
pedagogy, curriculum, length of school days, digital learning, teacher
effectiveness, school funding, and more.
We must prepare
students to compete in a global economy and ultimately help maintain U.S. leadership
in the 21st century.
Global Security
Global Security
Each generation has major challenges: Nazism, Communism,
Colonialism, Fascism, and so on. This and the next generation have and will
have their issues. Technology has unleashed a level of connectedness,
information, and force of change never seen before.
National and international security has become one in the same.
The role of the United States of America is more essential, and overcoming 21st
century challenges demand that our nation's defense is the most funded, versatile,
well-trained, respected, and effective in the world. We must also prioritize
diplomacy and present a positive image of the US and our ideas to the world.
As Gen Next Member, Juan Zarate says, "the U.S. must be
respected, feared, and ultimately admired to be effective at leading the world
to a more peaceful and free future."
Blog
Blog
Social Innovation: A Matter of Scale
By Steve Davis
November 11, 2011
"Social innovation is more than just a fashionable rebranding of traditional philanthropic activities. It refers to new approaches and tools for solving the world’s most difficult problems. While many innovative solutions have been deployed, the most important challenge now is identifying the very best of these practices and programs and replicating them to achieve global scale." More.
