I don’t think money is the primary problem for our education crisis. We’ve been throwing good money after bad at the educational system for years, yet things seem to get worse. I’m not sure what the solution is, but I think that though there’s a correlation between money and successful students, it’s only a correlation – not a causal factor. I think better schools get more money because there’s a value on education in that school’s area FIRST.

It’s because the local community demands it and is itself made up of education-minded, educated, and successful parents who themselves make money and thus pay more in taxes to their communities and, in return, demand more from their schools. Inner cities, on the other hand, are characterized by less-educated, lower-earning, and less education-minded folks who don’t provide as much of a tax base for better-funded schools, not to mention the fact that they demand less of their teachers and even less of their children in terms of school performance.

Would throwing money at these schools help? Probably. I think we can agree that if we threw billions into bad schools and enforced accountability from school leaders and paid good teachers good money to go in and clean things up, things would change for these disadvantaged students. But what of the cultural dynamic? By that I mean, you can lead a horse to water (i.e., put laptops in every kid’s lap and a well-paid “master teacher” in every classroom), but can you force him to drink (i.e., change entirely the minds and goals of inner-city students who haven’t bought into the notion of education as a means of self-fulfillment and lifelong success)? I’d like to hope so; I believe in the power of good teachers, because I wouldn’t be in business and media if it weren’t for a professor or two who excelled at bringing the subject to life for me.