Reply to Is the education 'crisis' in the USA overblown?

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Reply to "Is the education 'crisis' in the USA overblown?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The crisis is in the dramatic disparity of access to opportunity. [b]We do not fund schools equally in this country[/b], and people in underserved school districts are likely to face a plethora of challenges not experienced by those in better served (i.e. rich) districts. While a sliver of the general population is vey well-educated, many in our populace are woefully undereducated. I think this is a travesty - your socioeconomic background shouldn't determine the quality and value of your educational opportunities and experiences. Education is a right.[/quote]

I take issue with that statement.  I live in Maryland, and the school districts that perform the worst actually get the most funding.  I don't think the issue is funding.  I think it's far more complex than that.  The advantage wealthy people have is that they can live around other wealthy people, and that changes the dynamic.  It's not that public schools are funded better in those areas.  But really, that's a topic for another thread.

As for your last sentence, I think actually in most of human history and in most places around the word, your socioeconomic background does determine your opportunities.  It's sad, and it's not how I would make the world, but your entire post comes off as Pollyanna-ish and based on the same tropes constantly repeated, and that's why we never actually drill down into the more subtle issues of primary education disparities in this country.

But beyond that, I don't think OP is talking about the primary education crisis.  I think she's talking about the claim that we need to increase H1B-whatever visas because there aren't enough educated Americans to fill those jobs.  And I think she's right.  But I think employers push for more visas because they can exploit those workers -- pay them less, basically have a captive employee who is hesitant to leave a job b/c of the visa situation.

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