Math Or Bust

ANDREW YANG says getting workers ready for 21st-century jobs is a must. But we also have to create a safety net for those left behind.

- Andrew Yang

It's STANDARD BY NOW FOR ANY BIO OF ANDREW YANG, the 44-year-old New York businessman who is running a longshot campaign for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, to include a smirking reference to the “Robot Apocalypse.” Yang, however, is definitely not kidding. The central theme of his campaign is that technology is going to continue to put more and more Americans out of work—with devastating social consequences that we have not prepared for as a nation.

His primary answer to that challenge is a guaranteed monthly payment of $1,000 a month, no strings attached, to every American over 18 years old, which he calls a “Freedom Dividend,” to be paid for by new taxes on the companies benefiting most from automation.

Yang has steadily polled in single digits along with several other candidates but he has shown fundraising strength and his message has proven strong enough to keep him in the race thus far. Newsweek recently asked him about his ideas for mitigating the worst of what he believes will be a huge and inevitable disruption in how Americans work and live. We were particularly interested in his thoughts about preparing today’s children for the workforce of the future, which is also the subject of our ranking of America’s Best STEM High Schools (see page 26).

His answers on these topics, edited for space:

PREPPING SIXTH GRADERS FOR A HIGH-TECH PRESENT —AND FUTURE

WE NEED TO MAKE SURE CURRICULA ACTUALLY reflect the America that children will be entering. Teaching to tests doesn’t work. Standardized tests are a very poor measurement of human worth and potential. You need to stop thinking about our education system as a checklist of tests completed and start looking at it as an opportunity to set our children up for a lifetime of learning and development.