At the end of the day, we have an economy that works for the rich by cheating the poor, and unequal schools are the result of that, not the cause.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Another example of the educational inequality is the current debate over publicly financed school vouchers which will provide educational opportunities to a privileged handful, but deprive public schools of desperately needed resources.
The best solution to income inequality is providing a high-quality education for everybody. In our highly technological, globalized economy, people without education will not be able to improve their economic situation.
Think about it: Every educated person is not rich, but almost every education person has a job and a way out of poverty. So education is a fundamental solution to poverty.
Some liberals think that describing any role that education gaps play in creating income inequality is some sort of sellout - that, in essence, you're telling the middle class, 'Tough luck; you should have stayed in college.'
I think it goes back to whether or not race and class - that is, race and poverty - is not becoming even more of a constraint. Because with the failing public schools, I worry that the way that my grandparents got out of poverty, the way that my parents became educated, is just not going to be there for a whole bunch of kids.
The economy is the start and end of everything. You can't have successful education reform or any other reform if you don't have a strong economy.
The gap in education in this country, the unfairness of the schools, is one of the great unfairness in this society.
Over-reliance on strictly economic justifications has already begun to hurt the quality and range of education at every level of American life.
There are so many people around the world in need of high-quality education and really starving for education.
When someone has the desire to go to school and has the ability but can't get into our schools, that's wrong. Education drives the economy and the quality of life.