Schools and the Economy

Education leads to better economic opportunities and even if it is not the sole purpose of schooling, we must bear in mind that deeper understanding of the connection between education and economy can lead to formulation and implementation of positive result-oriented school reforms. The paper presents evidence to prove that there exists a deep and significant link between education and economic opportunities.

SCHOOLING AND ECONOMY: EVIDENCE

While most of us want to adorn ourselves with the best education available to us, we do so not exactly to broaden our intellectual horizons but to access better job opportunities once we enter the real world. This shows that schooling is closely connected with better lives or more opportunities. Does that also mean that better education would lead to better jobs in future and poor education would only add to poverty? Unfortunately yes, it does work that way. Education is indeed so intricately connected with economy that we cannot ignore the significance of the former in the creation of better lives for individuals. For this reason many people are of the view that children in poverty-stricken families should be equipped with quality education in order to provide them with equal opportunities as their more affluent counterparts. However, we notice that this has not been happening in the United States where poor continue to suffer from low quality education provided by ill-managed schools desperately in need of funds to upgrade their education system. Another important thing to remember is that quality and level of education affects not only the economic life of an individual but of the entire region or state. In the case of Florida, for example, we notice that because of lack of sound intellectual infrastructure, the state has failed to compete successfully with other states in the region. While the state has made some progress in educational areas such as number of high school diploma holders, which increased, slightly in last ten years, still it lags behind other states where improvement ranking is concerned. This poor ranking indicates that Florida's students have not been keeping pace with students from other states ether level of education is concerned. Only 49.5% of high school students join colleges whereas it was estimated that most of the jobs available in the sate require at least degree-level education. It is only clear that Florida is not producing intellectually advanced people who could meet the needs of today's highly competitive job market. The economy of the state suffers as a result which shows how economy is connected with education.

School reforms" has thus become one of the most critical issue of debate in educational and political circles today. People from all walks of life unanimously agree that education is important but they seem to disagree with each other when it comes to the types of reforms proposed for schools over the decades. While it is an acknowledged fact that public schools require governmental intervention and badly need more funds, many feel that public funds should not be spent on the education of selected few. This has been causing a rift between government and educational theorists and experts. Some solution is desperately needed to remove this cause of contention in order to introduce some positive changes in our education system especially our public education programs. I believe that this solution lies in clear understanding of the purpose of schooling, which is to improve economic conditions of an individual and his community. During the past several decades, educational reformers propounded various theories in connection with schooling and its influence on economy. Reformers have changed views and positions over the years but they have failed to agree on the supposed benefits of schooling or types of changes that should be introduced. Revisionist were of the view that schools serve only the "capitalist orders" while later reformers termed "formal schooling" as being "oppressive" in nature (Dorn, 2002). Somewhere in the second half of the last century, we got so caught up in devising school reforms, that we completely forgot exactly why those reforms were needed. It is thus important to remind ourselves that good education leads to better economic conditions and it is only then that productive and positive reforms can be introduced.