| thx1139 said: Recently I listened to a talk about a recent study and it came down to this. All poor scores are all about poverty. Was something like in districts with 80 or 90% of children 150% or more above the poverty level the US leads the world in scores. It is children in poverty that bring the scores down. Most of the rest of the 1st world have much stronger social safety nets and because of this poor children dont perform well at all in the US. |
If we are to speak of absolute poverty and not relative poverty, the United States does not have many more poor people (as a percentage) than a lot of these countries that succeed it, even if we speak of social safety nets. I really don't see how poverty can be the major determing factor when education is mostly socialized in the U.S. One can argue that less of an emphasis is put on education by poor parents and neighborrs, but that is a cultural quality, and certainly not something that can be fixed by more spending or social safety net. The only solution to that is greater economic prosperity that emphasizes the role of self-improvement and education, and which motivates these poor parents and neighbors to influence students toward better education.
