Better Public Schools Won’t Fix Income Inequality (The Atlantic) is one of those belief-altering articles that completely changed my thoughts around education.
Here are 8 of Nick Hanauer’s most powerful points:
- Educationism is the idea that poverty and inequality can be solved with education.
- Education-reform ignores the greatest driver of student achievement: household income.
- Great public schools don’t create a thriving middle class, great public schools are a product of thriving middle class.
- Income inequality has exploded despite education progress.
- The lower the parent’s income, the lower the educational attainment.
- Educationists ignore the disease (economic inequality) and focus on the symptom (education inequality).
- Limited family income is difficult to overcome even for students that are naturally gifted.
- Pay the average worker more, and you will create a thriving middle class that addresses both economic and educational inequality.