Saving Miss Oliver’s

In David Leonhardt’s excellent article, The Big Fix, in The New York Times Magazine, February 1, 2009, there is the following stunning statement: “The median male worker (in the USA) is roughly as educated as he was 30 years ago and makes roughly the same hourly pay. The median female worker is far more educated than she was 30 years ago and makes 30 per cent more than she did then.”  

Those who assert we should get our economy fixed first and then we can turn to fixing education don’t get it.  Shovel ready projects are important and they have the allure of quick pay-back. Likewise, fixing the financial system,  but what will these initiatives serve if we do not make the long-term, rewards-later investment in developing the intellectual muscle to do the work on which the economy depends?  We can no longer afford to accept a culture in which a kid one day out of law school makes more money that the person who taught him how to read -anymore than we can accept a culture in which the mediocre teacher gets re-hired every year. Without the political will to force change, and the financial sacrifcice to invest the money now, there will be no sustainable economic recovery. 

Another quote from David Leonhardt’s article – write your representatives and senators and tell them to read it: “Education helps a society leverage every other investment it makes—. It appears to be the best single bet that a society can make.”