American technology companies push for higher caliber graduates in workforce By Rory J. O'Connor Knight-Ridder Newspapers   WASHINGTON, DC - The chiefs of more than 200 major technological companies pledged Wednesday to use their clout to push educators to adopt voluntary national tests aimed at building a stronger educational system. The executives, who gathered here Wednesday to endorse President Clinton's proposal to establish national testing standards for fourth and eighth graders, said U.S. schools are failing to provide enough skilled workers to fill thousands of high-tech jobs. Without skilled workers, they warned, American leadership in technology and the economic growth that it brings is threatened. ``We are striving for what you would call in manufacturing a zero-defect result,'' Clinton said in a White House meeting with the technology executives. The president said national standards should ``guarantee that 100 percent of the children'' graduate from high school with the skills required to go to college and train for high-wage jobs in places like Northern California's Silicon Valley, one of the most economically vibrant regions of the country. The high-tech endorsement lends weight to the idea of national standards to boost educational performance, a cornerstone in Clinton's second-term agenda. It is also a political touchstone for Vice President Al Gore, whom most observers expect to run for president in 2000 -- and who will need to court California and its high-tech industry in the process. Politics aside, education is also a subject of vital interest to the high-tech executives, whose companies are forced to look overseas for programmers and whose assembly-line workers must understand statistics. ``What this is really about is about the new economy and what our kids, our companies, and society has got to do to compete and prosper,'' said John Doerr, a noted venture capitalist based in Menlo Park, Calif. ``We all agree that we need national education standards. These companies that have endorsed this program today employ a half million people. More importantly, they've created 130,000 jobs over the last four years. And even more importantly than that, they have hundreds to thousands of high-wage job openings right now that they're trying to fill.'' The difficulty in filling the jobs, according to high-tech companies, is that schools are not teaching enough children the proper skills in reading, math, science, engineering or >>computer<< programming to allow them to work in >>computer<< or biotechnology jobs. ``People in the high-tech sector bang their heads against each other trying to hire enough people,'' said Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape Communications in Mountain View. ``There's a whole series of things that have to happen to improve education. This is just a start.'' Delaine Eastin, California's superintendent of public instruction, also attended Wednesday's White House meeting and endorsed the national standards proposal. She called the national standards vital to moving her state's schools forward and assuring parents that educators ``can get the job done.'' ``Just because a kid gets an `A' . . . doesn't mean anything,'' she said. ``I need (standards) to know how my kid measures up against kids in Connecticut and Kentucky.'' If other California education officials echo Eastin's support -- a course by no means certain -- the state's 5.5 million public school students would join those in Maryland, Michigan and North Carolina, and those in U.S. military schools, in taking the tests beginning 1999. While that's only four states, they represent about 20 percent of all public school students. In California, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson sounded a discordant note. ``The bottom line is, she doesn't have the authority to set policy for the state of California,'' said Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh. The tests would be designed by the U.S. Department of Education at a cost of $10 million to $12 million, paid out of existing research funds, said Education Secretary Richard Riley. The administration has also pledged to absorb the costs of the first year of administering the tests, which Riley estimated at $80 million to $90 million. But that money must come from Congress in the fiscal 1999 budget. The high-tech endorsement grew out of a series of regular dinners between Doerr, other high-tech leaders, and Vice President Gore in California. But Doerr denied the endorsement, or the White House support, was political. (James R. Carroll contributed to this story.) RELATED STORY FOLLOWS Plenty of jobs to fill, too few skilled workers High-tech execs rally support for Clinton's education goals   By Rory J. O'Connor and Michael Bazeley Mercury News Staff Writers   WASHINGTON -- Silicon Valley executives, worried that U.S. schools aren't producing enough skilled workers to fill high-tech jobs, threw their support Wednesday behind one of President Clinton's top education goals: national testing standards for the fourth and eighth grades. After a whirlwind, nine-day organizing effort, the White House got what one executive called ``the biggest, broadest bipartisan endorsement ever from the high-technology industry.'' CEOs of more than 240 leading high-tech companies said they will use their clout to push national tests aimed at building what the president called a ``zero-defect'' educational system. ``We are striving for what you would call in manufacturing a zero-defect result,'' Clinton said in a White House meeting. The national standards should ``guarantee that 100 percent of the children'' graduate from high school with the skills required to go to college and train for high-wage jobs in places like Silicon Valley. The high-tech coalition, led by John Doerr, a venture capitalist and friend of Vice President Al Gore, lends weight to the proposal for national standards, a cornerstone in Clinton's second-term agenda. Clinton's proposal envisions that students across the country would take math and reading tests crafted by the federal government, but it leaves to states the option of requiring those tests -- a concession to conservatives who fear that national standards would usurp local control. But so far, only some conservatives have bought in. ``What this is really about is the new economy and what our kids, our companies, and society's got to do to compete and prosper,'' said Doerr, a partner with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers in Menlo Park. ``These companies that have endorsed this program today . . . have hundreds to thousands of high-wage job openings right now that they're trying to fill.'' The difficulty in filling the jobs, companies say, is that schools are not teaching the reading, math, science, engineering or computer programming needed for today's computer or biotechnology jobs. As a result, companies find themselves looking overseas for qualified personnel. ``People in the high-tech sector bang their heads against each other trying to hire enough people,'' said Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape Communications Corp. in Mountain View. ``There's a whole series of things that have to happen to improve education. This is just a start.'' Adding to the California-centric theme of the East Room announcement was a live video and two-way audio link to Stonegate Elementary School in San Jose. About 25 politicians and Silicon Valley executives -- including Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Gilbert Amelio, Netscape's Jim Barksdale and Cisco Systems Inc. Chairman John Morgridge -- crowded into the school cafeteria to view the proceedings on a big-screen TV. Barksdale said the high-tech group would ``knock on each and every governor's door'' if necessary to move the national standards bandwagon into high gear. ``I can't imagine anyone anywhere not supporting this,'' Barksdale said. Clinton and Gore were also flanked by Delaine Eastin, California's superintendent of public instruction. ``Just because a kid gets an `A' . . . doesn't mean anything,'' she said. ``I need (standards) to know how my kid measures up against kids in Connecticutand Kentucky.'' If other state officials echo Eastin's support, California's 5.5 million public school students would join those in Maryland, Michigan and North Carolina in taking the test beginning 1999. Those states represent about 20 percent of all public school students. But Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, for one, is skeptical. ``The bottom line is, she doesn't have the authority to set policy for the state of California,'' said Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh. ``They are proposing standards and we don't know what they are and we don't know what the content of the tests are.'' The tests would be designed by the Department of Education at a cost of $10 million to $12 million, paid out of existing research funds, said Education Secretary Richard Riley. The administration has also pledged to absorb the costs of the first year of administering the tests, which Riley estimated at $80 million to $90 million. But that money must come from Congress in the fiscal 1999 budget. The high-tech endorsement grew out of a series of regular dinners between Doerr, other high-tech leaders and Gore in California.