In his Internet World keynote on Thursday, Cisco Systems president and CEO John Chambers warned that the USA’s K-12 education system lags far behind its rivals in Japan and Korea – with frightening implications for the future of America’s knowledge economy. If they can’t read and they can’t use a computer, there’s no place for our kids in the new economy. We have to change, Chambers told his audience. Ask any CIO and he’ll tell you that the major cost of wiring the schools is supporting those networks once they’re in. He boasted that Cisco now has a program to teach students to maintain school computer systems. The students graduate with a degree from Cisco, Chambers said. That can mean the difference between earning a $19,000 a year in dead-end job and landing a job with a salary between $30,000 and $70,000. Laudable as it is, the Cisco program is a drop in the ocean.
