Burleigh: Education is Key

Former CEO of The E.W. Scripps Company, William R. Burleigh on Priorities for Community Growth: Education and Regionalism

Keynote Address from Economics Center on Vimeo.

Article from Enquirer:
Former E.W. Scripps Co. chief executive Bill Burleigh told business and community leaders Thursday that education was the key to boosting the region's economy.

But educators and politicians need to move past squabbling and turf battles to innovate and improve student performance. He decried "teacher-bashing" as a new sport by politicians sweating over budget shortfalls, but also teacher unions' resistance to vouchers and non-public charter schools.

"Education is everybody's business - it's too vital to our futures to leave to professionals and politicians," he said.

Burleigh made his comments during the University of Cincinnati's Economics Center Annual Awards Luncheon at the Hyatt Regency downtown. More than 300 people attended the event. The center promotes financial and economic education by working with teachers and students grades kindergarten through 12.

Burleigh lauded teachers' roles in shaping future generations of leaders and criticized public policy that doesn't pay educators well and stifles them with bureaucratic supervision. He lambasted some public attitudes that view teachers as "glorified baby-sitters."

"I have always thought it was a deadly accurate indicator of how a society truly values education by how it treats its teachers," he said. "I daresay I could go around this room today and hear heart-rending stories about any number of unforgettable teachers who made crucial differences in your lives."

Still, Burleigh urged teachers unions to be more open-minded. He said educators should welcome non-traditional teachers into the system and not resist vouchers or charter schools.

"We know from political and business life that monopolies never work," he said. "While 90 percent of the students in America attend public schools, there needs to be plenty of room under the educational umbrella for anyone who wishes to join from the private, parochial, for-profit or home school sectors as well... Let the entrepreneurial spirit flower."
Schools need change, but don't bash teachers: ex-CEO