The Real Financial Crisis

Economic dominance is intrisically linked with educational dominance. Hence, we could be looking at a real fall in the near future in the United States. This is the ultimate point of Thomas Friedman's April 22nd New York Times Op-ed entitled, "Swimming Without a Suit". The title comes from a quip by Warren Buffet, "only when the tide goes out do you find out who is not wearing a bathing suit." Oh how true, economic success like the rising tide can cover a multitude of sins, but all does seem to become rather clear in a recession and the naked state that our education is leaving many of our students' in and the effects on everyone at the beach are becoming all too clear.

Consider the numbers,as provided in the above stated article, if the US had closed the international achievement gap between 1983 and 1998, yes we were aware that we were behind even back then, we would have increased GDP by 1.3 trillion to 2.3 trillion. For all of you paying attention to current events, that amount would successfully pay off the deficit that many people think will be the end of us. Furthermore, for those who are more concerned with the domestic side of things, had we closed the racial achievement gap between blacks/latinos and white students in that same time period then GDP in 2008 would have been $325 billion-$500 billion higher. The same holds true for the gap between low-income students and their more affluent peers. Yes people, we could have avoided this whole recession, or made it far less painful, through education investment.

Interestingly though, there are still people out there who don't think education is part of economic stimulus. Well, follow this basic line of reasoning for a second: Knowledge is Power and Power is Money. Yes, it is seriously that simple. President Obama did commit funding to education as part of the stimulus and that is certainly a start. As well, applications for Teach For America and other alternative certification programs in the neediest districts are up. We have failed our education system into a recession, one hopes that it is the recession that also makes us aware that are economic system relies on education. Since we can't depend on high tide being present all the time, we better give every child in this country a bathing suit or they, and we, are going to drown trying to cover up the multitudes that our education system is leaving naked.