By Rep. Valerie Gaydos, R-Allegheny (part) and Rep. Pete Schweyer, D-Lehigh 

One of us is a center-right Republican from Alleghany County (near the border of Ohio), the other is a center-left Democrat from Lehigh County (near the border of New Jersey). We are from different backgrounds, have different life experiences, and often disagree about public policy and politics. But despite the things that make us different, we are quite friendly. Aside from a genuine personal respect, we pride ourselves on being serious legislators who don’t fall victim to the venom of the hyper-politicized national discourse.   

We also fundamentally believe that we are better able to serve our communities by seeking information and seeing other perspectives. That is why when given the opportunity to join folks from PSBA on an educational tour of Germany, we were honored to accept.  

Throughout the visit, we toured a variety of public schools in des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia). We learned about teacher preparation at the University of Siegen and the Center for Practical Teacher Training in Aachen. We met with legislators and officials from Nordrhein-Westfalen’s Ministry of Education, spoke with students and apprentices in schools at a factory and even discussed American-German relations with the U.S. consul general from Dusseldorf.  

There were some truly eye-opening conversations that led us to believe that, simply stated, the Germans do some things better than we do, as their educational system is central to making this region remarkably successful. 

First, they have deftly integrated their education system with their private sector to ensure a skilled workforce for their regional economy. We met with two incredibly impressive young people who were apprentices at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Dusseldorf. Both started their journey in college but decided that a career in manufacturing was a better fit for their life goals and skill sets.  

These young people blew us away with their professionalism, knowledge of the entire factory and overall maturity. Both were planning on spending time at Mercedes facilities in the United States, and both were well on their way towards rewarding careers.  

Integrating education with professional development is something that we in Pennsylvania are very interested in pursuing, though we are far behind the curve.  

Second, while at the University of Siegen, we were beyond impressed to learn about how this region was incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into the classroom. Far from the idea of “robot-teachers” that some falsely believe is the future of AI education, their professional educators were teaching their students how to use these tools so that they are prepared for life.  

 We spoke with one German educator who reminded us that the advent of the internet required us to change the way we teach students. He remarked that by teaching students how to use the internet, they were more efficient and better prepared for the job market. We came away from this believing that AI in the classroom is something to be embraced, but also something that needs real policies to be impactful.  

Certainly, not everything is perfect in this part of the world and in fact, these folks are facing many of the challenges that we are. They are experiencing teacher shortages, need investment in school facilities, and see discrepancies between affluent and working-class communities (although not to the extent that we feel in PA). Germans are also learning to serve their immigrant communities.  

All of us from PSBA were happy to share our strategies (both local strategies and state policies) and speak to our shared challenges. We sincerely hope that our insights were helpful to our German hosts.  

Finally, a note of thanks to the PSBA Institute and the American Council on Germany for including us in this remarkable opportunity. In these highly polarized times, folks can be understandably wary of even meeting with two elected officials of differing parties at the same time, let alone traveling with them for a week’s time. But both organizations put aside any such reservation and embraced us as partners in education policy. For this, we are quite grateful, as we both learned so very much.