I hear this comment from prominent Democrats running for office, “Our children’s education will help them compete in the global economy!” I read it on web sites run by Democratic coalitions: we support policies that will equip Americans with the skills and resources they will need to adapt and thrive in an economy filled with fierce competition from all corners of the globe. The message is the same, every time: the reason that our working class citizens are finding it harder to make ends meet, getting deeper in debt, and facing a insecure future is because of “competition from outside our borders.” Of course, that means the once elected Democrat can continue the message and push the same agenda, blaming the American working class for its own plight and at best offering assistance in the form of better schools, maybe a subsidized job training program for out of work adults. Apart from that, what else can our Democratic leaders do? After all, the competition is outside our borders; not the jurisdiction of our legislators.
Hogwash.
While it is true that the working class of any nations competes with the working class of another, the plight of the American working class is not because we are less educated than our competitors across the globe or that we are not working hard enough. More Americans have college degrees than ever before. Only a few nations have a higher percentage of graduates. Finally, Americans are working longer hours than at any time since statistics have been kept AND they are also working longer than anyone else in the industrialized world.
But listen to the Democrats and they will tell you that our working class is simply not prepared or equipped to compete in the global economy. Republicans will say the same, adding that we’re also not working hard enough and want something for nothing. Both parties tell us if we want something, we have to work for it.
What is the Whole Truth?
The truth is that the real competitor facing the American working class is not in Germany, or China, Denmark or Mexico. Our biggest competitors are right here in the USA, many of whom donate generously to the campaigns of Republicans AND Democrats. Why do American CEOs make twice as much as German CEOs? Why has the American working class experienced wage stagnation since the 1970’s while the GDP has soared? Why is the USA the ONLY developed nation that does not provide health care to its working class as a human right? Hint: Not because we have a “global economy” and not because of our working class competitors across the globe. Our working class is suffering and will continue to suffer because of the wealthy class, the rent seekers, the 1%. Our working class is suffering and will continue to suffer because we elect Democrats who refuse to admit this and absolutely refuse to upend it, perhaps because it is the source of their campaign war chest and will, some day, lead to $400,000 speaking fees after leaving office.
It’s both/and.
Our issue with education is largely a matter of equity. Not enough students of color are rising through the ranks of college graduates which is a huge reason our corporations and policymakers largely remain a white male arena. Poor white students are facing similar disparities. There are different ways to close these gaps.
1) Vocational Education
We absolutely should reinvest in vocational training. The need is already outstripping the demand here in MA, where vtech schools, once a dumping ground for the academically challenged are now running out of spaces. Doubling or tripling our voc tech institutions in this state would create construction jobs, hire more skilled manual workers as teachers, and train the next generation to take those jobs.
2) Actual Career Readiness
Our education system should really start steering people in the direction of jobs that will exist after automation and to the best post-high school opportunities that fit these goals. Partnerships between community colleges and private insititutions like Regis help reduce the costs of education and train people for the professions of the future which includes nursing. Nursing and Med Tech/Med Asst positions could either be integrated into standard electives and/or for vocational schools. And we should encourage male students to explore these pink collar professions. It’s hard to ask an out of work factory worker to go into nursing, it’s a lot easier to ask his high school aged son to make that call. Schools should better train students for the jobs of the future and start making realistic choices in terms of what state funded higher ed should push.
3) Citizens as well as Workers
Schools should also revitalize civics, philosophy, and socratic discussion so that children can really explore the big ideas and big questions and come out of public school as well rounded citizens capable of making informed votes. And I absolutely believe we should fully push arts and music education as well. Not everyone can make a career of it-but that exposure is invaluable. My lifelong passion for photography was sparked at a high school darkroom.
4)Fix the Funding
I am a big believer that America can do both-we just have to end the grotesque funding inequities that come from funding our schools via local property taxes. And your other points can be addressed by sharply raising taxes on the wealthy, corporations, offshoring, and corporate dividends. Somehow taming the market to start valuing American job creation, sustainability, and long term business health over short term profits. Once strong companies like Sears have been driven into the ground by vulture capitalists hungry for a quick fix over a real long term solution. And the vacant malls, lost retail jobs, and holes in the community fabric will not so easily be replaced after it’s been ‘creatively’ destroyed.
Short version. I agree education isn’t enough, I totally disagree it isn’t important or that it’s overemphasized by our party. If anything, we don’t have a robust enough policy and most voters don’t know where we stand.
We have the most educated state in the nation.
We are 47 out of 51 (including DC) in wealth disparity.
And you think More Education…..is the answer?
Education is important, always will be. It’s also important to watch your calories and get exercise. It’s important to wear your seat belt. It’s important to floss daily.
While all of the aforementioned are important, NONE of them will address the wide, and widening wealth disparity in the USA.
The only solution is to elect representatives to Washington and Beacon Hill who are willing (and able) to fight for the rights of the working class, and that means fighting against the wealthy class.
You and I both know those rankings are bogus precisely because of the income inequality metric. I would argue we aren’t really the most educated if access to educational opportunity is a privilege and not a right. I think we can kill many birds with one stone-raising taxes substantially on the wealthy and business interests and breaking up corporate political power. Doing so will then generate enough revenue to fund a truly equitable education system, where there is actual equality of opportunity. As well as funding transit and infrastructure-two areas that would help put people to work. As well as fighting for unions and better wages. These are all connected.
I won’t pretend like the neoliberals that suddenly reforming education will eliminate poverty. Or deny that a lot of our educational outcomes are determined by our levels of poverty. I also won’t buy into this idea that MA can’t improve it’s educational system-or that improving it somehow comes at the expense of fighting for workers.
I don’t know them to be bogus. I agree, we can kill a lot of birds with a tax increase on the wealthy, but that will require a party that actually has the will to do so. Why is Massachusetts not leading in the fight for $15, for single payer?
Could it be the quasi-Democrats in power?
The Great Wealth Divide in the USA was not the result of a sudden lack of education and job skills on the part of the working class. It was and remains the result of Republicans and Democrats selling out. I just read where Sen. Dianne Feinstein is “not ready to back Universal Single Payer”…could is be connected to the fat checks she gets from the lobbyists of the insurance companies, big pharma, and the rest? Screw her!
I think we are saying the same things. I want a more progressive education policy that actually achieves equity. I also want a much stronger safety net and massive reinvestment in the middle and working classes. This can only be accomplished by massive taxation on the wealthy. So we are in agreement.
And the Democratic Party would be a center-right party in any other country, it happens to be center-left within our paradigm which has never embraced a viable socially democratic center-left party. Other countries where it did occur more rapidly are ethnically homogeneous. Part of the reason this consensus is finally breaking down in Europe is because of the mass migration the last two years.
The rise of the far right is attributed to both cultural anxiety about migration as well as economic anxiety about globalization. The left can only cure one of those anxieties, and hope a more equal baseline for all ends the cultural ones. .