ProfyB (90.33)

Education

November 07, 2009 – Comments (5)

I'm told that the best part of my "Obama the Crafty" was the one on education.  I didn't intend to go into it so much in that post, but it ended up that way because I strongly believe in improving education.  This is the perfect opportunity to elaborate on my beliefs.  Now I'm not a big believer in silver bullets, there are none.  However, providing better education will over the long term helps improve everything in society that's worth improving on.  The following is by no means a complete list, but it's a good start.
Health care:  People focus so much on providing health care, but the sad truth of the matter is there are plenty of diseases that either can't be treated or can't be treated efficiently.  Not only that, but we need doctors that are capable of diagnosing illnesses and treating them.  The best system in the world won't do squat if we don't have the ability to provide cures in the first place.  Improving education will help increase the amount of researchers to create medicines, inventors to create medical devices, and doctors to administer treatments.  It also helps to have people who can make treatments cheaper, allowing greater distribution among the masses.
Environment: Human nature will not change, we're bred to consume as much as we can.  Attempting to change human nature is a fool's errand, but that's not what education is for.  Better education will provide for more scientists and engineers who will create new technologies that will either produce less pollution or get rid of the pollution we've already created.   
Poverty: This one almost doesn't need explanation.  On average, people with more education end up making more money (Bill Gates being an outlier).  There's also an additional benefit, more education equates to more inventions.  More inventions equate to a higher standard of living. 
If economics was taught better we'd also have people support better policies in their government, there are still too many that don't realize the pitfalls of price controls (e.g. rent control).  Ending policies that increase poverty is a great way of fighting poverty.
Politics:  This one may not be so clear cut.  I think the biggest problem with politics people as a whole act like sheep.  There are those that simply go with their party without really knowing what it is they support.  All they know is that the other side is wrong.  I know people who *think* they're Democrats, but their beliefs are more in line with Republicans.  I also know people who are the exact opposite.  They all refuse to actually think about what they support, they're happy enough being told what to think.  Now it's possible for an educated person to act the same way, I'm ashamed to say that I was guilty of that for a while.  However, I'm of the belief that there's a better chance of reasoning with an educated person than someone who isn't.


Unfortunately, real improvements to education are unlikely to happen.  The main problem is that politicians are the ones that run our government, but they have no incentive to improve education.  This isn't entirely the fault of the politician, everyone acts in their own best interest and therefore require incentives.  However, people have short memories and judge politicians on what happens in the short term.  As an example, people are saying that the current economy is "Obama's economy" because he's been in office for a year.  These people generally also blame Obama for causing massive inflation.  However, the true effects of increasing the national debt may not come into effect for a decade.  At that point, if it becomes a problem the people will blame the current president and forget that the national debt increased under Bush and Obama (or you know, the past 30 years).

Education is a long term policy, there are almost no benefits seen immediately after improving education.  If you create a better grade school and improve the education of a five year old, the benefits will not be seen until that child grows up and starts producing for society.  This may be as little as 10 years, but could also be 40 or 50 years.  A politician's term is at most 6 years, so improving education will do nothing to help them get re-elected.  The only incentive left is that they may want to be remembered as a good civil servant.  However, that won't happen because people have short memories.  If Obama creates a fantastic education system today and the result is a near utopian society in 2050, the credit will go to whoever's president in 2050.  Obama would only be remembered for the effects he's had during his term (health care reform, the war in the middle east, etc).  

So how can incentives be created for politicians to focus on improving education?  I don't have a good answer for this one.  Obama seems to be putting a lot of effort into it, there's a lot of money being thrown into the education system as well as a movement to improve the way the system is run.  I make no comment on if it will work or not, it's fairly difficult to judge the quality of something as subjective as education.  All that matters is that a legitimate attempt is made.  I have no idea why Obama would attempt to improve something that provides very little benefit to himself, perhaps he's personally motivated somehow.  Regardless, I'm glad he's doing it.