Notes on Economics - Education

From the undeveloped note file, here are a few more, about education, with some current thoughts added:

We need smarter managers, smarter workers and a smarter society in general to have a dependably sustainable economy in the future. We have now gone from one of the stupidest Presidents to one of the smartest. As a people, Americans need to follow the example of our new President and make education a true priority.

Raleigh, NC schools allow no more than 40% low income students in any one school, and their test scores for reading and math are up. Disparity between the haves and the have nots has too often been enabled by the school system. My first lawyer job was with an African American attorney in the Seattle Central Area. Many of our African American clients, who were undereducated due to lack of opportunity, displayed a remarkable street savvy, prompting my employer to remark, "If they gave them an education, they would rule the world". Barack Obama, recipient of a world class education, now President of the USA, is about as close as we get to a world ruler.

From 1995 to 2005, in the US, rising tuition and diminishing government aid led to a ten fold increase in student loans. Our financial institutions, abetted by Republican ideology, taught our college students that debt is a good means to economic betterment. It would have been better for our society, using tuition easing measures and financial subsidies, to place inherent value on a college education and enable as many as possible to achieve it without having to become indebted to the financial have class.

Anti-affirmative action laws reduce minority enrollment at public universities, but using test scores and grades in a total context of evaluating the individual can improve the numbers. The best solution to improving minority enrollment numbers at the university level is to improve the eduction minority students receive in earlier years. In fact, improving the quality of education for all students, beginning with Head Start, could one day erase any race based disparities.