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Ep. 166: The Convenient Conventional Wisdom of "Education as Great Equalizer" Appeals

Added 2022-09-14 14:31:10 +0000 UTC

"Education... is a great equalizer of conditions of men—the balance wheel of the social machinery," stated school reformer Horace Mann in 1848. "Math is the great equalizer," preached Jaime Escalante, Edward James Olmos’ character, in the 1988 film Stand and Deliver. "The best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education," announced Barack Obama during his 2010 State of the Union address.

This message is everywhere, pervading political speeches, Oscar-bait films, think-tank papers, and everything in between. The key to economic upward mobility—we’re endlessly told, is education—a societal building block that is, or at least should be, accessible to every child, no matter their race, gender, or income level. It's a seductive, seemingly unassailable conceit, suggesting that we live in a meritocracy where second chances and generational wealth-building are possible, even probable, with a few simple tools.

But is there any truth to this idea? There’s a growing body of evidence showing that education level does not, in fact, necessarily translate to higher wages. Which raises the questions: Why has the idea that education is the ultimate anti-poverty tool persisted? Whose interests are served in its continuation? And who, in turn, pays the price?

On this episode, the Season Six premiere of Citations Needed, we detail and debunk the widespread conventional wisdom that education is the rising tide that lifts all boats, looking at the ways it reinforces themes of individualism and personal responsibility; obscures systemic issues like racism and worker exploitation in the labor market; and ultimately keeps people entrenched in, rather than liberating them from, poverty and low-wage work.

Our guest is Lake Forest professor Cristina Viviana Groeger.

Guest

Cristina Viviana Groeger (@tinagroeger) is a historian of education and work in the modern United States. An Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Lake Forest College, she is the author of The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston (Harvard University Press, 2021).

Show Notes

No, Education Still Won’t Solve Poverty

Cristina Groeger and Mike Stivers | April 14, 2021 | Jacobin

Is Education No Longer the ‘Great Equalizer’?

Thomas B. Edsall | June 23, 2021 | The New York Times

‘Turnaround is a relic’: Chicago officially winds down reform-era school improvement program

Cassie Walker Burke | May 26, 2021 | Chalkbeat Chicago

Chicago Ends Arne Duncan’s Failed Strategy of “Turnaround” and “Disruption”

Diane Ravitch | June 3, 201 | Diane Ravitch's Blog

More education doesn’t always get you more money, report finds

Jessica Dickler | October 13, 2021 | CNBC

Are Bad Jobs Inevitable? Trends, Determinants and Responses to Job Quality in the Twenty-First Century

Chris Warhurst (Ed.) | 2017 | Palgrave McMillan

The Birth of the Gap: The Historical Beginning of Achievement Gap Rhetoric

Laura Jones | 2013 | American Education Research Association

Classroom Distinctions

Tom Moore | January 19, 2007 | The New York Times

Report: Charters Schools Aren’t Improving Student Achievement in Chicago

Kevin Solari | October 17, 2014 | In These Times

To close the skills gap, start with the learning gap

Randa Grob-Zakhary and Jessica Hjarrand | August 3, 2017 | Brookings

U.S. Ranks 23rd Out of 30 Developed Countries for Inequality

Gillian B. White | January 16, 2017 | The Atlantic

The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age

Alan Trachtenberg | 1982 | Hill and Wang

Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-1919

Nell Irvin Painter | 1989 | W.W. Norton

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Transcript

For a full transcript of this episode, go here.

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