I typically agree with columnist David Cook’s perspectives, but I have to take exception with column on the potential Hamilton County tax increase and its impact on the community through the school system (Sunday, page A2, “Better Schools won’t fix Hamilton County”). I disagree with the idea he put forward that schools are not the conduit to make an impact in low income communities.
From Cook’s column: “Even the most thoughtful and well-intentioned school reform program can’t improve educational outcomes if it ignores the single greatest driver of student achievement: household income,” writes Nick Hanauer in The Atlantic’s “Better Schools Won’t Fix America.”
Hanauer believes that increasing entry level wages will be the driver for increased household income. I don’t disagree that entry level wages should be increased, but I do think education will be the driver for this if we do it right. Hanuaer asserts we have done it right and improved public education based on increased graduation rates nationally but without affecting economic mobility for students in poverty. However, I have three things for Hanuaer and Cook to consider.
First, increased high school graduation rates don’t mean graduates actually have the skills to go into the workforce or postsecondary pathways. It just means we are graduating more students and leaving them at a precipice without supports to a living wage career. A high school diploma does not have the market value it did even a decade ago. The majority of living wage jobs require a postsecondary credential of some kind, so graduating more high school students isn’t a metric of evidence that school support doesn’t affect economic mobility. The real metric is postsecondary attainment.
Second, I agree that entry level pay is too low, but Cook’s statement, “We assume that by remaking our schools – via a tax increase – we will create a more educated population, which leads to more jobs and money. That’s backward,” is wrong because increasing access to postsecondary credentials fills the skills gap jobs that give access to upward economic mobility. By increasing the number of skilled workers filling living wage careers, it shrinks the talent pool for the entry-level jobs that are paying too low. This shrinking of the entry-level talent pool will force companies to increase wages to recruit workers in a more competitive market.