A Cascade of Education.

I’m fascinated by how trickle down can work in the real world. Not that neo-liberal mantra promoted by a kleptocratic oligarchy, but the real one. I wrote about it in my post about the Farmer’s Market, as it was the first time that I realized that the theorem itself isn’t that bad, it’s just what it’s used as an excuse for. Today I would like to discuss (please comment and complete or dismantle my arguments!) one case in reality where I can imagine that to work out on a higher level, too.

Education.

Yes, back at that little bastard, sitting in the corner of each state budget, snotty nose, dirty clothes, probably anemic and definitely malnourished, totally neglected. There’s something that always bothered me, and that I never really understood – Why are governments spending so little on education?

Assuming they don’t want us dumb.

Which of course might be the case, dumb people make great consumers and are easily manipulated, and in our egomaniac society, where everybody believes they have the right answer and everybody else is stupid and must be manipulated for their own good, well, it isn’t that far off. Generally, governments want well educated people, they even try to get them from other countries. Why not make them at home?

Too expensive.

At least in the short run. In the long run, it will pay off, and that is where the trickle-down comes in. Not only attention is like money, but education is, too. And it trickles everywhere. First, it trickles into wealth. People with a good education have a higher income, and that is not restricted to titles. A solid education on any level leads to that. That then returns in form of taxes – if the state pays for schools, it will get paid for education.

Money is not everything.

Health is important, too. And here, again, there is a direct influence of education on health. The better the education, the healthier the people are. The healthier they are, the less the state has to spend on health insurance. And that’s not all, better educated people also tend to be happier. There’s good reason that education is one of six key pathways to reach well-being.

Where does it end?

It doesn’t. Education is self-accelerating. The better educated the parents are, the better educated the children will be, if given the possibility. Currently, only the opposite is discussed, the part how being poor and having parents of lower education reduces the probability of being successful in the child’s own educational path.

Bad news make better headlines.

The narrative is always negative, even though there is a very bright side to this, as mentioned. No one has to be stuck due to being poor or having under-educated parents. In a good educational system, that would change rather quickly anyway, within one generation. As long as the parents do their part and instill values in their children that promote learning and improvement.

Poverty affects a child’s brain development, inhibiting their ability to learn and understand.

That’s from a study. It destroys my argument. Not. The same study, which is very interesting, though long, came to another quotable conclusion:

Early childhood education provides structure during cognitive and social development, which can minimize the socioeconomic achievement gap.

(Source of the quote here)

Again, education is a good thing. I’m not one to throw money at things to solve problems, but education is clearly an underfunded problem, and yes, the moment in time that we’re in, throwing money at it does help.

It takes endurance.

Thanks to the regression we made already, there would be a time to endure, a time of hardship. Cutting expenses elsewhere to fund education, in order to get that money back in 10-20 years. Multiplied, probably. The last study linked also mentioned a yearly loss of 700 Billion through the achievement gap and dropouts. Wasted potential, and that does not include the many children that can not develop their full potential due to lack of resources within the educational system.

The worst behaving get most support.

That’s how Tarazkp put it, and it’s true. I already tackled that issue in another post. What I did not say was that there are too few teachers for too many students. My daughter was/is one of those attention seekers, for different reasons than I pointed out, and in different ways. That was one of the reasons why I sent her to a school where the teacher has 8 children in her classroom. She can adapt to everyone’s needs accordingly, and I don’t have to worry about my daughters behavior being very negative towards others while we’re working on it. Lily does a lot better know, also thanks to that school.

Because I paid for it.

Yes, it is throwing money at the problem. And yes, it is working. There will be a point where of tipping the balance to the other side, where it will be too many resources funneled towards education which then will create a total different kind of problem. But while everything is horribly underfunded (cracks in the walls, no free food, no learning materials), that “problem” is far, far away.

Just one more thing…

Education reduces crime. You know what less crime is good for? Reducing the need for policing and according equipment. Prisons and such. Especially in the country I live in, facing a huge wave of crime in some parts of the nation, I can’t help but remember that it kind of started when the government started cutting the budget for education drastically. #ecuador had a great streak after investing a lot in education, but since that is going downwards in the last 10 years, the country seems to be in a downward spiral.

Long term thinking.

It always comes back to that. Not reacting, but acting. Setting the path for a sustainable future. The more education, the more sustainability for a society, on all levels.

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What do you think? Could education be the salvation? Where are the pitfalls?