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Education Remedy Income Inequality – #5 – Josh Hirth
March 4, 2015 | Leave a Comment
Teach a man to fish rather than giving him fish to eat, was what I kept thinking as I read Josh Kraushaar’s article The Proven Way to Fight Income Inequality : Education. He discussed how both De Blasio and Obama, have plans to fix the income inequality issue this country is facing while ignoring the underlying issue, education. And I agree with him. Our political leaders need to make an effort to reform our education system and by doing so the income gap will hopefully decrease. When Josh says “Left unmentioned are the efforts on the supply side—expanding school choice, improving teacher quality, and strengthening curriculum” I could not help but think of charter schools as the ultimate solution for this problem. Because more than anything they allow choice, and as any business professor will tell you, choice in any market pushes quality up and prices down. It demands existing companies improve to stay in the market, and that is exactly what the education system needs.
The infograph as well as Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane statement “We are constantly reminded that the math, science, and language skills of our children and young adults lag far behind those of children in other countries. In international rankings, our college graduation rate has fallen from first to 12th.” Really shows how the United States is falling behind our international counterparts. It further outlines how income inequality has allowed some parents to offer their children increased access to resources, which in tern allow them to do better academically. While I agree with that, I would just like to offer a counterpoint. Programs like affirmative action in college admission aim to counteract that by offering students in minority groups (often underprivileged and impoverished) college admission with lower than average scholastic performance.
The Washington post outlines how many universities are using other programs to get low-income student into the classroom. Harvard’s no cent policy for students whose parents make less than 40,000 is one of them. Other Ivies have created financial aid packages that don’t include student loans, and many have done away with early decision to allow students to review financial aid packages before making the decision. The problem seems to be the access to this information and to the proper college guidance councilors. It appears our K-12 system is at fault, especially because the vast majority of the teachers at underprivileged schools have not gone to selective schools themselves.
While I do see the need for education and what it can do for mobility between social classes I don’t know if that’s the ultimate cause of the most current income inequality gap. In the post WWII era when the US underwent great (and equal) economic development it was largely based off of increased education. We developed a system to grow, and that was through further education and advanced degrees. The people that took part in that, went to college, went to graduate school reaped the rewards, of extreme wealth.
However, the times have changed. We are trying to solve a problem with an old cure. These days to achieve success one has to look beyond education. In fact many of the individuals in the growing one percent these days, lack a college degree. Look at Forbes and you’ll see more and more of the most elite in this country never graduate college. Although education will help you rise out of poverty, it is by no means a guarantee of success. If the most recent economic crises told us anything, it was that just because you have a degree doesn’t mean you’ll find a job.
