Shirley Clarke Franklin
Mayor of Atlanta

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As mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, I can't think of any issue more important than preparing our children for the competitive global market that requires their best thinking, imagination, innovation and talent. As a public official, I believe that the best policy decisions are made when they are guided by value-based principles that provide practical solutions. In order for children to take full advantage of their human resource capital, we must instill a love of learning in them that advances beyond formal educational requirements. We must challenge them to see the best and to be the best — the global classroom requires it.

While a great many academic and political experts debate whether American children are outperforming students in Singapore or Hong Kong, the fact remains that many American students are struggling to reach the level of excellence that gives them an honest chance to succeed in a very competitive global arena. The education of young people is not any one group's singular responsibility or issue. It is a global issue that deserves a global response. The world has shifted and our business model is no longer local, it is global, so we have to attract and appeal across geographic boundaries and landscapes.

I come from a place where my ancestors were denied the legal and moral right to learn to read. After the Civil War, slaves learned to read and write in historically black colleges and universities that created and cultivated the space for them to learn because there was no structured educational system that allowed their admission. I am from Pennsylvania, where the first historically black university in America, Cheyney University, was founded in 1837. Cheyney was followed by two other historically black institutions, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (1854) and Wilberforce University in Ohio (1856). Although these institutions were called universities or institutes, they provided elementary and secondary education because the students did not have any other previous education. These schools trained some of America's best and brightest leaders, like Atlantans Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis and so many others. My parents and I attended one of those historically black colleges, Howard University in Washington, D.C. Yet, more than 143 years after slavery was abolished in America, there is still evidence of its vestiges in the lack of equitable educational access for some young people. So education is more than political rhetoric to me — it is personal. I have seen what happens when a community gets engaged in helping to shape and reshape the lives of its young people. I am the product of the legacy of my father's and his father's educational opportunities. Similar stories can be found in every corner of the world when young people have full access to top-quality educational opportunities. The record is clearly documented.

When a community gets engaged in the lives of its young people, everyone wins.

As corporations, companies, governments and communities consider the daunting challenge of preparing for tomorrow's global workforce, we must also address the social and economic obstacles that confront today's young people. No one single entity can do it all — it will require a community of thoughtful leaders who get it! The General Electric Foundation gets it! Through GE's programs to increase college readiness and its continued support for grants that encourage schools, businesses and corporations to collaborate, it is helping to make systemic improvements in public education. I believe it is this kind of corporate community-based support and impassioned courage to do the right thing that will make the difference in generations to come. Our children's children deserve our best efforts and our successful advocacy and partnerships if they are to have a chance for peace, and social and economic justice around the world.