On 4/17/15 the Wall Street Journal published a letter to its editor by Gary Kaplan, Executive Director of JFYNetWorks in response to the 4/10/15 op-ed piece Education Does Reduce Inequality – By Dan Greenstein and Jamie Merisotis
Mr. Kaplan’s published response found here.
Messrs. Greenstein and Merisotis perform a valuable public service by setting the record straight on the value of education. It’s incredible that anyone today would argue against education as “the bridge to economic opportunity and social mobility.” But highly educated pundits like Paul Krugman and others, who should know better, not only cast doubt on the economic value of education, but even suggest that it confers an unfair advantage in the zero-sum struggle for survival.
Messrs. Greenstein and Merisotis make the obvious point that the corrective to inequality is more equitable educational opportunity. That proposition should be considered a tautology. Education is the only functional–indeed the only available–tool we have in the struggle for economic and social parity, or equity, or justice. If there is a better tool, let the critics offer it. Otherwise, what is their prescription for the jobless, the poor and the worried middle class who fear becoming jobless and poor – let them read Marx?
GARY KAPLAN
Executive Director
JFYNetWorks
Boston
