The New York Times today published an article discussing what many of us have known for quite a while now – that the skills of our current workforce are not matching up with industry needs. One company highlighted, Ben Venue Laboratories in Cleveland, was only able to hire 47 people out of 3,600 job applications due to a lack of skills. Many of the applicants failed a basic test measuring literacy and the ability to do ninth-grade math. The pharmaceutical company is still struggling to fill another 100 jobs.

"You would think in tough economic times that you would have your pick of people," said Thomas J. Murphy, chief executive of Ben Venue.

With the unemployment rate today reported at 9.5%, it is a tragedy and an abject failure of our education system that we have millions of jobs -- about 3 million, according to the Obama administration -- that continue to go unfilled because our workers cannot even pass basic literacy and math requirements. Many of these Americans have high school diplomas, yet still lack the skills necessary to compete for these unfilled jobs. It is apparent that we must not only focus on raising the number of students that graduate from high school, but also that we must ensure that the quality of the education they receive in high school prepares them for some form of postsecondary education or a family-sustaining career. Furthermore, this highlights the need to ensure that all Americans receive a quality education in the STEM fields - science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Even if one does not think they'll require math for their desired career, STEM education is vitally important to the development of one's ability to problem solve and to analyze situations logically. Ninth-grade math should never be the difference between having a good career and being mired in perpetual unemployment.

Finally, it is clear that we must evolve our adult education system such that the millions of Americans already in the workforce have an opportunity to obtain the skills necessary to compete for jobs. Perhaps some of them might get lucky and find a job that doesn't require upgrading their skills, but they will always be just a recession away from needing to beat very long odds to find another job. Without a system that actively reaches out to these adults and provides them with an education that meets their needs and the needs of employers, they will forever remain among the most vulnerable in our society.