Better Schools Won't Fix America Walk-through

1. He goes to conclude by saying that ultimately, although public education is important and a needed investment, what is going to help solve the issue is attacking the wage gap between the wealthy and the poor. This also means giving people the means to afford quality housing, medicare, etc through taxing the rich and raising minimum wage.

2. Hanauer points out that education is not affecting income, but rather income affects education. He explains that the most successful schools and students are those that arise from stable, wealthier middle-class communities.

3. He then goes on to explain that Americans as a population are becoming more and more educated; there are more people with a college degree than in past years by far. And yet, the "skill gap" is not being filled, meaning education is not the root of the issue.

4. This is where he comes to his thesis: the reason for economic inequality is household income.

5. Initially, Hanauer explains, he had a firm belief in educationanism. This is the belief that solving funding/education problems with America's schooling system would be able to thus fix issues with inequality, poverty, etc. He worked on a program to help fix this and found that he was, in fact, incorrect.

6. After Hanauer has come to the realization this belief was "tragically misguided", explains that the issue is with America economic system and the way it tends to benefit only the rich.