Economic Inequality...Educational Opportunity: the chicken or the egg?

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Post Four of series “It is not enough to be compassionate you must act (14^th Dalai Lama).”

 

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Economic inequality

Below I have summarized the findings outlined in Barbara Ehrenreich’s  book, Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America:

·            No, you cannot survive and take care of your basic needs on a minimum wage salary.

·            The welfare system has unrealistic expectations of those who need assistance. (For example, the system assumes those in need can mobilize easily to apply for multiple positions in an extended radius).

·            Within the United States there exists a “culture of inequality,” where low- wage workers face daily hurdles and repressive measures that stagnate their possibilities of a stable lifestyle.

Dr. Ehrenreich set out to test her ability to survive and meet her immediate needs on a minimum wage salary for a period of nine months. She moved from Florida to Maine and finally to Missouri working in a variety of settings to cover her basic needs. This first hand account enables one to identify and understand the daily plight of the low-wage worker. After reading Nickle and Dimed I conducted a web search to determine why so many colleges and some high schools had chosen this book as a summer read. I found no substantive information beyond lists of reflection questions. However, this book did find its way to the reading list of my doctoral course on Economics and Leadership, although, as a group we chose to read Savage Inequalities by Kozol, an account of the incredibly poor state of public education in certain “unattended to” areas throughout the country. I knew I would get to this book someday and I am very happy that I did.  To stimulate change, who should be reading this book? How many policy makers and politicians have read Nickle and Dimed and would that make a difference?

Inequality of opportunity

The very same day I finished Nickle and Dimed I picked up the Washington Post and read Larry Summer’s op ed article (7/16/12), Our inequality of opportunity…. Summers first states that the distribution of income is far worse than it was a generation ago, and with the present state of the economy, this trend will continue. (No progressive made since the publishing of Nickle and Dimed!) He briefly outlines the progressive and conservative viewpoints suggested to alter these economic trends, but quickly moves to encourage a different dialog on economic policy, that of improving equality of (educational) opportunity. If we want workers to have better opportunities, shouldn’t we ensure that they can afford and receive a high quality education? Summers suggests that:

·            We improve public education  (wow! – a huge feat)

·            Universities continue to work to increase enrollment of minority populations.

·            With the same push universities have put toward increasing racial and cultural diversity, they should set in place policies to increase economic diversity.

I have not achieved much through this blog beyond summarizing a study and an opinion on the state of our economy with a suggested correlation to the state of our education system.  Is this a, what came first, the chicken or the egg scenario? Does the lack of educational opportunity create poverty or do the dire economic conditions make educational opportunities inaccessible for many? I wish I could do more; I admit that I feel a bit hopeless. Well, I did find  a new twitter follower (WeCanEndPoverty) to give me some ideas, and I have investigated when the next Literacy Volunteers of America training is taking place in my area. What else can I DO to make a difference? Maybe the courageous approach taken by the author of the next book I am reading, The Fist and the Heart, will motivate me to DO more to help change this “culture of inequality.”