Collapse of public school quality feeding inequality - why does no one talk about it?

[Drewjdeg]

Originally Posted by Avondalist

Point taken that education is not the only input to productivity.

However unlike the size of the global labor force or the pace of technological change, improving education is something we have control over.

And regarding comparisons with other countries, I am more interested in the developing countries that have achieved big productivity increases by improving their educational systems.

It may very well be that education saturates as an input to productivity. However given the US's dismal performance education could be the low hanging fruit. We are probably compensating for our poor educational system in other areas which you have pointed out. And maybe the smattering of quality public schools and private schools supply a critical mass of talent, along with immigration brain drain, to keep the economy humming. That this only sharpens inequality is my point.

Many, many marginalized people in the US received awful educations, and they could have had better lives were our system not so dysfunctional. I think it's clear that education can increase human capital, and that quality education is available to the wealthy more than the poor. This worsens inequality, and yes in the aggregate diminishes output from what it could be (although other factors affect output).

I agree with the most of what you've written here.

I think that better education can pull up productivity, a lot, but I don't feel shortcomings in the US education system are strongly correlated with declining productivity; it may not be the right statistic to look at. Then again, you bring up an interesting point about immigration masking the problem. If it were up to me, we'd have a lot more legal immigrants, it's what keeps us competitive. Then again, I'm probably more bullish on immigration than most people.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by Drewjdeg

"I am better than you" syndrome.

Quite common amongst conservatives.

Projection Your Honor!

[Clarallel]

Originally Posted by Avondalist

Public education had a huge effect on raising up the middle class from about 1900 until the 60s. The middle class heyday in the midcentury corresponded with the heyday of public education. Go figure.

The reasons for the decline of public education are legion and I don't want to rehash that debate. I'm more concerned with why we rarely hear about this decline as a driver of inequality. Wage stagnation is blamed on outsourcing, union busting, technology, etc. Underlying wage stagnation is productivity stagnation. And productivity stagnates when people stop becoming more educated.

Is it possible that the middle class is disappearing because the middle class is losing skills due to the decline of public education? I think it's very possible.

Hm. Why? Maybe because people - thus, the media - have short attention spans and prefer simple stories of easy issues or lurid scandal.

I like your theory about disappearance of the middle class, although would you also agree that Republicans tend not to have much interest in funding education?

And perhaps the other eternal question - why do we accept that teachers are paid so poorly? This might interest you.

What Teachers Are Doing to Pay Their Bills
By Jaime Lowe

Teachers across the country are now baristas, Amazon warehouse employees, movie-theater managers and fast-food grill cooks. They’re entering the gig economy in off hours and struggling to stay awake during school days.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...cond-jobs.html