Back in March, when I interviewed Cisco CEO John Chambers about the state of the U.S. educational system, he was wringing his hands. "We have got to get back to what made this country greatour education system," he told me for my column. Now Chambers is putting his moneyand Cisco'swhere his mouth is.  On October 25, Chambers announced Cisco's 21st Century School Education Initiative, or the 21S Initiative, a $40 million program that will help build state-of-the-art schools in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The company and its top executives committed $20 million in cash. (Chambers is donating $2 million and Chairman John Morgridge is putting in a hefty $10 million.) Cisco is contributing another $20 million in goods and services. The first $20 million will go to phase one, the Mississippi Education Initiative; the second half will be allocated to schools in other parts of the Gulf Coast region later.  "Can we take one of the worst setbacks our nation has had and use it to create the will to change?" Chambers asks me, during a long conversation he and I had after his announcement. Then he answers his own question: "This may offer us an opportunity for a fresh start so we can build an education system for the 21st century."  Though the initiative was applauded when he announced it, Chambers is frustrated that the press has portrayed it as hurricane relief. It is that, of course. But he would also like the public to see this project as a chance to create educational models for the entire country. If Mississippi, whose schools rank 49th in the nation, can create a state-of-the-art educational system, then Chambers hopes other, more affluent states will be inspired.  This isn't an expensive philanthropic undertaking for a company that had $5.7 billion in profits in fiscal 2005, but it is an ambitious effort. Cisco is even sending some of its employees down to Mississippi to work on the initiative. Indeed, after Chambers' staff developed the proposal, he took it to five of Cisco's largest shareholders to see what they thought about it. "Every one of them said you've got to do it," he says. "That was a wow." They realized, he says, that this is not only the right thing to do, but also that it will benefit Cisco's corporate image and showcase its technology.  Cisco's initiative will work on multiple fronts. The company will give $500,000 to seven school districts that already have some digital education efforts, to use as they see fit. It also will completely equip three storm-damaged schools so students can take advantage of the Internet. For instance, the company will install wireless broadband, with Internet voice, video, and data capabilities. Cisco will help develop online curricula for several classes (some will be taught entirely online). And it will create networks to link together students, teachers, parents, and administrators. The first school that will be wired is the Rowan Elementary School in Hattiesburg, Miss.  Chambers says that Cisco chose Mississippi not only because it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, but also because he believes that Governor Haley Barbour is, like himself, passionate about education. In addition, Chambers' friend, former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale, is already deeply involved in Mississippi educational reform. A couple years ago, Barksdale gave $100 million to establish the Barksdale Reading Institute at the University of Mississippi.  Chambers admits that his education initiative may not work, but he says that the risk is one worth taking. In our March conversation, he noted that American 15-year-olds rank 24th among industrialized nations in math skills. During our recent talk, he wondered, "Are we going to incrementally try to improve from 24th to 23d? Or are we going to say, 'Let's think again about American leadership?'"  Throughout our interview, Chambers kept returning to one word: average. That's what he says the U.S. educational system is becoming, as measured on a global scale. He's terrified that most Americans don't understand what this means. "If we don't fix our education system, we'll be an average nation," he says. "That may take several decades, just like it takes a while for a brand to decline. But by the time most market transitions become obvious, it's too late." And in an average nation, he says, 30% to 40% of the population will be locked out of achieving higher standards of living. "So the gulf between the rich and the poor will just deepen," he says.  This is the grim scenario he's hoping Cisco, in its small way, can help avert. "Our nation has always taken terrible adversity and challenges and come back stronger," he says. "We must do that in education." Wouldn't it be nice if every company thought this way?  Questions? Comments? E-mail them to me at dkirkpatrick@fortunemail.com.  Also, all of a sudden there is instant information for all of the students all over the world. They are learning all about the world, the opportunities every where. But here we are teaching the kids that America is the world. Let us teach them more than just how to surf the web. Do not just throw money at the system, throw time at th  But that's only the a layer of the real problem. The terrible state of our families, particularly the fathers lack of responsibility in raising their children (yes, and especially the rich and middle class) and the mother's all out at work, the divorce rate, etc., that is where the real decline of our society lies. Throwing more money at the school system doesn't work, never has worked and never will work!!  When the industrial revolution happened in Europe and then the Agricultural revolution in the US, the machines and tools made human so productive that new frontiers were possible to open one after another.  The packaged food that we pickup on the grocery store shelves, has gone through the evolution of US Agricultural and Industrial Creativity. This creativity was achieved by science and technology.  As we are now, and will deeper become a knowledge-base-society, our success and productivity shall be achieved by good tools and environments that enhance learning and  teaching. Teaching of knowledge should become as easily available as picking up a box of milk from the grocery store.  In the 21st Century, our knowledge must become easier to teach and easier to comprehend. If we solved one variable equation algebra in our schools in the 1930s, then we need to solve four variables algebraic equations in 2000 and beyond. With productivity tools, we shall achieve this.  We don't need more technology, we need more learning based on the three R's -- Readin', Ritin' , and Rythmetic -- not outcome based education which DOESN'T work!
CEO John Chambers hopes that his $40 million project to upgrade Gulf Coast schools will be a model for improving the U.S. education system.