Will Richardson

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Fix Poverty? Forget About Education

July 29, 2011 By Will Richardson

Here are three quotes that will hopefully lead you to read this really interesting interview with John Marsh, the author of Class Dismissed: Why We Cannot Teach or Learn Our Way Out of Inequality.

–What I learned — and what I wanted to convey in the book — is the unsettling truth that if people truly care about lessening poverty and economic inequality, they should forget about education.

–People who live in more equal countries live demonstrably better lives than those who live in less equal countries. In more equal countries, people — rich and poor alike — live longer, trust each other more, discriminate against women less, devote more resources to foreign aid, have fewer bouts of mental illness, use fewer drugs, murder each other less, have lower rates of infant mortality, suffer less from obesity, are more literate and numerate, complete more years of schooling, imprison fewer people, and enjoy greater social mobility.

–Although economists and scholars debate it, it is not clear that the United States needs or will need many more college graduates than it already generates.

And for once, there’s a fairly high level, balanced, respectful comment thread that parses the ideas even further. I love when the comments make me think as much as the article.

What do you think?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: college, education, higher_ed, schools

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