AGENDA 2026: Education Reform

The STRONACH FOUNDATION of ECONOMIC RIGHTS offers Point #6 - an economic policy recommendation for public Education and Training. Those needs are increasingly diverse and dynamic.

Frank Stronach proposed 7 economic policies for Canada.

Proposal #6 follows.

As before, I use [ ] brackets to identify the WHAT has to be done, WHY, BY WHOM,  HOW and WHEN.

6) Reform Our Education System

We [the “royal we”] need [the WHAT] technically skilled tradespeople in order for [the WHY] the economy to function.

We should [the WHAT] require students in their final two years of high school to be exposed to one or more technical trades at businesses outside the schools. Students would be exposed to different trades such as toolmaking, bricklaying, carpentry, farming, and healthcare over a two-year period.

This sort of exposure would [the WHY] give students some practical, hands-on experience and allow them to explore various career interests, test their skills and discover what they really love to do and what they are good at doing. Adopting this approach would also [the WHY] help create a feeder system to provide the skilled technicians and tradespeople our country needs while [the WHY] helping restore the real economy.

My comment: As in prior economic policy recommendations, the HOW, WHEN and BY WHOM of Point #6 are unclear.

Jobs of the Future

Frank’s primary business was automotive manufacturing. I don’t doubt that skilled tradespeople were hard to find over the years that he built and managed his international manufacturing empire. Technology became an increasing important component in which he needed to invest in order to leverage the productivity of scarce and increasingly expensive ‘human capital’. Labour costs have always steadily increased while the cost of computer chips has dropped precipitously over the years.

Like all manufacturing and distribution businesses that I observed over my 40+ year career, the size of corporate investments in “human capital” remained somewhat stable while budgets increased for “capital assets”. Businesses constantly sought the best formula for using modern tools and technologies to optimally increase productivity and efficiency while maintaining a stable cost structure.

Manufacturing “Plant of the Future”

About a decade ago, Chris was my co-worker and a Project Manager. He was assigned to a project at a truck engine manufacturing site of a client’s “manufacturing plant of the future” undertaking. The goal was to build and equipe a “lights out” assembly line production facility with robots and other forms of advanced automation. A standard plant of this type employed ~60 people. When completed, the new plant employed only six human staff. The only responsibility those workers had was to maintain and repair the equipment. They worked 8-hour shifts to provide coverage for keeping the production line running 24 hours per day.

This “Plant of the Future” project was completed ten years ago by a major automotive components manufacturer with many international plants. A popular trade magazine published a feature article about it. Cutting human labour costs was one of the primary goals of the project because access to skilled tradespeople was challenging and retraining expensive.

Since then, many manufacturers, agricultural and farming companies, construction businesses and engineering firms, and supply chain operators have continued to increase their investments in new technologies for many very good business reasons. Many job types have disappeared.

I wonder how many skilled tradesworkers today are now wondering where all their past well-paid jobs have gone.

I also wonder what the skilled labour market will look like in the decades ahead.

Then there’s AI.

The Third Industrial Revolution concentrated on automating clerical and blue-collar jobs using mostly pre-digital technologies.

The Fouth Industrial Revolution leverages a broad range of purpose-driven digital technologies to enable vastly-more-impactful ways to improve productivity and efficiency.

Contemporary tools concentrate on enabling humans to readily access, synthesize, manipulate and exploit vast pools of stored human knowledge in virtually every conceivable domain of human endeavour.

Most significantly, many of the newest tools are utilizing rapidly advancing Artificial Intelligence methods to improve the performance of “knowledge workers” across every economic sector.

Many informed and notable pundits are predicting catastrophic consequences to virtually all forms of employment from AI. Others envision a productivity boom that will vastly benefit humanity in yet-to-unfold ways. Whichever side of this debate you prefer, many arguments are based on unsubstantiated claims, misinformation and conspiracy theories. They seem credible because a grain of thruth is often present or the information source seems to be credible to the ill-informed. With so much information available today, it hard to know who or what to believe Even formerly respected scientific journals are suspect these days.

One thing is clear and certain, however.

Education, in combination with well-developed critical thinking skills, is essential in order to “survive & thrive” in this brave new world.

In today’s Knowledge Economy, trust is fleeting when verification is absent. Decades ago, President Ronald Reagan advised: “Trust, but verify”. “Consider the source” is better advice because motives matter when considering and evaluating who is presenting the new information.

Unleash an EDUCATION FREE MARKET!

Government institutions are slow to adapt. Like most large organizations, their operations are cumbersome and resistant to change. This is due to extensive, expensive and complex work processes, procedures, policy and authority restrictions, and their many-layered management hierarchies.

The public sector is poorly suited to meet the ever-increasing education and training demands in a rapidly changing Digital Economy.

A Better Policy.

Frank Stronach earned his wealth in highly competitive markets. Why not apply the benefits of competition to Education? Would frank support an economic vision in which a free market existed within which a range of governmental and non-governmental education service providers had to compete for business?

Only competition in a free market for education and training services will provide the dynamic and innovative economic landscape the Digital Economy craves.

This is the best option to serve the career aspirations of our youth and the staffing needs of employers in every sector for a ready supply of knowledgeable and skilled workers.

Common sense suggests that a FREE MARKET APPROACH IS BEST where education and training are concerned.

Ideally, the Stronach Foundation for Economic Rights will lobby provincial governments to repeal all laws and regulations which currently enable provincial governments to operate Education monopolies at the primary, secondary and post-secondary levels.

True “ECONOMIC RIGHTS” means that every student, parents of students and grandparents of students should be free to OPT-OUT of the public Education system and its associated tax obligations.

Those tax savings could be used to pay for non-government Education service provider who best serves the interests and inherent abilities of the student.

Let Freedom on Informed Choice prevail.

Some citizens will continue to “OPT-IN” to government service providers and be taxed accordingly. This is their right too. BUT to be fair, they must acknowledge that some students don’t thrive under the “one-size-fits-all” curricula of traditional schools and should be supported of others who choose to OPT-OUT.

Once the government Education monopoly is cancelled in favour of the free market approach, many other options for study will emerge to serve all needs across all student populations.

Why a Competitive Education Market?

Existing laws and regulations exist to provide the scaffolding upon which the Public Education Monopoly operates. Once repealed, a level competitive field will exist. Savvy entrepreneurs will see opportunities to enter the Education Market and offer competitive alternatives to legacy public schools.

What to expect.

Inevitably, the government schools will begin to shrink in size, number and funding as more students enroll with non-government operators.

The central planning administrative bureaucracies will also become financially unsustainable and decline in size or disappear altogether. Decentralized planning at each education and training facility is a better way to meet local needs.

Union membership revenues will fall as more teachers and custodial staff choose to work in the non-government organizations. Many former goverment workers will be attracted by the opportunity to innovate and adapt to serve a wide range of market needs offered under a direct ‘pay-for-service’ model with no middle-man.

Eventually, a stable equilibrium will be established when the majority of students/parents/grandparents have made their choices of education venues.

The need for continuing education and training in the modern Digital Economy generates a huge economic demand.

The Education Market will become very large, decentralized and nimble. It will feature CUSTOMER SERVICE levels rarely seen in government institutions.

Even the unions will need to adapt if they are to have any hope of surviving. The German union example discussed in the last MY LIFE LENS post is likely to emerge as the most successful model going forward.

Lobby for Competition

Frank Stronach knows a lot about competition and deeply understands the value of being “the best that you can be” in competitive markets.

Teamwork, specialized knowledge and structured methods of co-operation are very important elements for success in today’s businesses. These elements are no different that what you will find in the top professional sports teams, or in the planning and execution of a theatre performance or a live musical event.

Every consumer knows from first-hand experience that competitive free markets, driven by entrepreneurs and private capital investments, are always superior in performance when compared with mandated central planning, taxation and bureaucratic delivery.

I hope the FRANK STRONACH FOUNDATION for ECONOMIC RIGHTS is true to its name with respect to Education and champions the rights of every citizen to access the broadest array of resources possible for learning from free markets.