Manager of Community Relations for Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America, Helen Carroll: "Education ... is similar to a manufacturing line."

Education reform is an urgent mission
by Dan Hassert
Kentucky Post (Covington)

The Education Excellence Action Team's report - and all school reform initiatives - will fall on deaf ears unless there's an aggressive "sales job" to convince the community that schools are failing to produce sophisticated graduates who can succeed in the high-tech marketplace, team co-Chair Helen Carroll said.

"Part of our challenge is ... to do a marketing campaign about education to get people on board and get things to happen," said Carroll, manager of community relations for Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America.

While education advocates feel the urgency, too many others just don't realize that "we're just not getting them ready," she said.

Realizing the numerous barriers to learning, the action team discussed many "pie-in-the-sky" ideas like having a mentor for every child, she said. But it narrowed the focus and wrote a plan that has a very real impact on every step of a person's schooling, with special emphasis on early childhood programs and more rigorous curriculum, Carroll said.

Education, she said, is similar to a manufacturing line.

"The philosophy of Toyota is you don't add quality at the end, you build it in along the way," Carroll said.

The process of educating and training someone for a career, she said, must work the same way.