“Progress of the world depends almost entirely upon education.” — George Eastman

I have always been a strong believer in and supporter of education and public schools. At times I have felt like the schools were expected to “solve” societal challenges that people didn’t want to deal with more broadly, bussing being a prime example. We don’t know how to address segregation and racial inequality so we put it all on the schools.

An article in The Atlantic this summer explored a similar idea and is worth our attention. In “Education Isn’t Enough” (the title in the print edition, online as “Better Schools Won’t Fix America” at theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/education-isnt-enough/590611/), Nick Hanauer, entrepreneur, venture capitalist and philanthropist, explores why he has come to believe that education is necessary but not sufficient to improve opportunities for Americans.

“Successful” schools tend to be found in strong middle-class communities where families have the time, money, and education to demand the best and support them. If you pay workers a decent middle-class wage, more successful schools will likely follow because, as Hanauer notes, “the metric most predictive of a child’s educational success [is] household income.”

But what do we see happening in our schools? From year to year the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced lunch continues to grow, until it now exceeds 50% nationwide. Children in lower-income households tend to face multiple obstacles that can impede their educational success including housing and/or food insecurity, less time for parental help with school, fewer enrichment opportunities, more exposure to lead and asbestos, inadequate healthcare, and more. Studies have shown that only 20% of student outcomes are due to the school, while family circumstances account for 60%.

And what do we see happening in the economy? Since 1970, after-tax corporate profits have increased from about 5% to 10%, while in the same period wages as a share of GDP have fallen by 8%, and the share of pre-tax income of the wealthiest 1% has soared from 9% to 21%. The real wages of the top 1% rose 156 % while the average paycheck did not increase.

Hanauer notes, “Today…the median American family is left with $76,000 a year. Had hourly compensation grown with productivity since 1973—as it did over the preceding quarter century, according to the Economic Policy Institute—that family would now be earning more than $105,000 a year.”

While this was happening, the number of Americans with a high school diploma went from about 50% to 90% and the proportion of Americans with a college degree tripled. Lack of education was not the prime culprit.

Education is important on so many fronts, but it cannot undo the impact of economic inequality. “We have confused a symptom—educational inequality—with the underlying disease: economic inequality.”

Education is and always will be vital, but has the education system also become a scapegoat for a society that is unwilling to directly address other issues that drag people down? What do you see?