Is Education the Answer to Economic Inequality? Not in the USA.
Education can't solve economic inequality When my guru forwarded Nick Hanauer 's article in The Atlantic , " Better Schools Won't Fix America ," I devoured it enthusiastically. Hanauer, a wealthy American philanthropist, with considerable credentials as a patron of education in the USA, was disavowing the dogma that education can erase the income gap--a dogma he calls "educationalism." Hanauer's criticism of his cohorts in the 1% is scalding. "Educationalism," Hanauer writes, "appeals to the wealthy and powerful because it tells us what we want to hear: that we can help restore shared prosperity without sharing our wealth or power." Global education versus American education The article does not devalue education, but debunks a generalized notion that education alone can solve economic inequality. His argument, in a nutshell, is that "great public schools are the product of a thriving middle class, not the othe