The Atlantic – September 2019

12 SEPTEMBER 2019 THE ATLANTIC

RESPONSES & REVERBERATIONS

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our society poor, his “fixes”

won’t work. Racial animus

is one of the most powerful

drivers of inequality. Not until

we truly have education equity

along with nonbiased policing,

no redlining of communities,

a realistic tax system, repro-

ductive rights, and full voter

agency for all citizens will we

have income equity.

Sharon Feola

HANSVILLE, WASH.

“Educationism” as described by

Nick Hanauer is a belief we are

all too familiar with and guilty

of ourselves as philanthropic

leaders. Too often we jump to

solutions before examining the

root causes of the inequities

that are present in our educa-

tion system.

While household income

is a predictor of educational

attainment, structural racism

is the enduring impediment

that undergirds the wealth and

educational opportunity gaps

across our country. If we truly

want to address economic

inequality and fix our schools,

we need to examine why such

gaps exist.

Nick Donohue

PRESIDENT AND CEO, NELLIE MAE

EDUCATION FOUNDATION

QUINCY, MASS.

John H. Jackson

PRESIDENT AND CEO,

SCHOTT FOUNDATION FOR

PUBLIC EDUCATION

QUINCY, MASS.

Finally, a fresh, realistic

perspective on what is really

going on in many of our under-

performing schools. I taught

elementary school in Boulder,

Colorado, and Erie, Pennsyl-

vania. The experiences were

night and day. Both schools,

in my opinion, had adequate

economic resources; the

David H. Freedman replies:

To say U.S. health care is expensive

because, as Jon Kingsdale notes,

its prices are high is nearly a

tautology. Why are they high?

If the cause were an evil, greedy

health-care industry, then the

industry must be raking in

massive profits not seen in other

countries. But most hospitals are

nonprofits, insurance companies

(which cover just two-thirds of

Americans) have profit margins

around 5 percent, and Big Pharma

companies are multi nationals

that sell their drugs all over the

world—are they evil and greedy

only in the U.S.? There are in fact

many reasons for high prices here,

and the evidence makes clear

that a big one is the demanding,

neglectful attitudes of American

patients. (Though, yes, lower

rates of alcohol consumption and

smoking are relative bright spots in

an otherwise troubling picture.)

Education Isn’t
Enough
Like many rich Americans, Nick
Hanauer used to think better
schools could heal the country’s
ills—a belief system he calls
“educationism.” As Hanauer wrote
in July, he has come to believe that
he was wrong; fighting inequality
must come first.

It’s about time somebody spoke

up and named the elephant in

the room. That the person who

wrote this article is essentially

the “elephant” makes it all the

more laudable. I commend

Nick Hanauer for taking on this

issue, as it is the issue concern-

ing educational inequality and

the “achievement gap” so often

spoken of. I sincerely hope

that he sparks a real national

dialogue about the treacheries

of wealth inequality, and that

the obvious response is a funda-

mental redistribution of wealth.

Catherine Jones

HAMDEN, CONN.

There is undeniably a problem

with income inequality in this

country, and I feel it person-

ally as a middle-class engineer.

However, I still consider myself

an educationist. Nick Hanauer

is dead right in saying that “a

college diploma is no longer

a guaranteed passport into

the middle class,” but it does

produce a better-informed

electorate that is demonstrably

less likely to vote for politi-

cians or policies that just aren’t

functional. Most pragmatically,

education policy is perhaps

the major institutional change

(besides infrastructure

improvement) most likely to

get past the legislative grave-

yard that Congress has become.

Robert Hodge

GEORGETOWN, COLO.

I agree with all the points

made in this article. However,

in one sense the failure of our

education system is responsible

for the state of our economy

and society: the consistent lack

of civics education. We have,

both by design and through

in attention, produced two

generations ignorant of how

our society and government

should work. The lack of civic

engagement allows the wealthy

and powerful to disenfranchise

huge masses of Americans.

Howard Schneider

PORTLAND, ORE.

Nick Hanauer’s article high-

lighted the chicken-or-egg

dilemma of education and

income. However, without

addressing deliberate efforts

that keep certain portions of

difference was the income and

education levels of the students’

parents. In Boulder I wanted

for nothing, and going to school

each day was a joy. It’s easy to be

a great teacher when you have

super-prepared children. In

Erie I saw firsthand how money

in schools doesn’t negate the

effects of poverty. All the stress-

ors in the home come right to

school, which is something no

amount of money can change.

Tina Brown

MOORPARK, CALIF.

Rather than simply acknowl-

edge that his “education-

ism” approach to improving

public education might have

been wrong, Nick Hanauer

concludes that his investment

in education was wrong.

I agree with Hanauer that

our education system can’t

compensate for a failing

economic system, but strategic

interventions and invest-

ments can strengthen existing

public schools in ways that

afford poor children access

to the same high-quality

educational opportunities

that their middle-class and

wealthy counterparts have. I

hope Hanauer will reassess

his investment in education

and understand that economic

and educational equality are

intrinsically linked.

Caro G. Pemberton

SANTA ROSA, CALIF.

Correction

“Raj Chetty’s American Dream”

(August) stated that the Mayo

Clinic is located in Minneapolis.

The clinic’s Minnesota campus

is in Rochester.