WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

The great equalizer, but some are more equal than others

 “Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.”  –Education reformer Horace Mann

“A family’s resources and the doors they open cast a long shadow over children’s life trajectories.”  –Sociologist Karl Alexander

Former Gov. Gary Locke made Horace Mann’s famous pronouncement almost a catch-phrase during his two terms in office, and there’s no denying the impact that a good education can have on the arc of a person’s life. The authors of the Washington state constitution took this idea as a given, and their “paramount duty” language ultimately led to the McCleary decision that currently dominates headlines, and legislative conversations.

Now, the results of a 25-year study led by sociologist Karl Alexander at Johns Hopkins University underscore the importance of education, but they also remind us of some disturbing truths as well: Race, gender, and economic class can matter – greatly.

The researchers followed several hundred children in Baltimore during the course of the study, and quoting from the university’s blog, “. . . discovered that their fates were substantially determined by the family they were born into.” Without many exceptions, children from low-income families became low-income adults, and their higher-income counterparts remained in their economic cohort.

All other things being equal, which they aren’t, the key to escaping poverty is education, and the study confirmed that a child’s attitude toward and ability to succeed in school is formed early in life. House Democrats have long known this, and it’s a rare session that doesn’t include significant legislation aimed at bolstering early childhood education and helping families make the most of their children’s first few years.

Alexander’s research makes it depressingly clear that early interventions and a fully funded basic education system are not the panaceas one might hope for. Even among the subjects who dropped out of high school, white men were more than twice as likely to find jobs than black men. The same result showed up for women in the group.

As for economic class, quoting again from the Johns Hopkins blog, “Of the children from low-income families, only 4 percent had a college degree at age 28, compared to 45 percent of the children from higher-income backgrounds.”

This study, like so many others, illustrates the profound fallacy of the “fund-education-first” bumper-sticker talking point beloved by so many who don’t actually have the job of writing responsible budgets: Schools are vital, but they don’t exist in a vacuum. Social programs matter. So do job training, mental health, worker safety, economic fairness, family planning, and the entire social safety net.

Horace Mann was right, of course. But that social balance wheel he mentioned — that’s one complicated wheel.