Obama's 'Corporate Education Reform': Leaving Teachers, Schools, & Students Behind (but $250,000!)
A nice analysis of Obama's Republican-not-so-lite education reform. The quote below is from James Horn at Schools Matter, but the other sources noted within the article are worth reading.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/pers-j26.shtml
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Using some of those Harvard econometrics from Raj Chetty, Obama <preceded> the ridiculous "escape from poverty" contention with this emerging statistic-meme:
We know a good teacher can increase the lifetime income of a classroom by over $250,000.
Even if this speculation could be practically demonstrated, which it can't, here's what it would mean.
So divide the $250,000 by 25 kids to a classroom (next year you can add 5 students to this number), then divide that by 45 years (next year add 5 years to that number), and you get a grand total of $222 per year per child. An "escape from poverty"? That won't even buy you an annual subway ride from the Bronx to Manhattan, much less an escape from poverty.
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