School Reform Successes

I agree that improvements in education outcomes are likely to be marginal even under the best assumptions. Maybe in terms of efficiency we're pretty much stuck, but let's look at efficiency and equity where I'd argue there is scope for massive reform.

In terms of efficiency, let's wind the clock back 30 years and get the same outcomes for half the real cost per student.

And in terms of equity, as Rueven points out, let's stop subsidising higher education which only reinforces the gap between rich and poor.

When I read papers like that I get the feeling people formally in charge of the problem are way too ensconced in the current system to consider potential solutions that lie outside of it.

I'm sure their results are valid to some degree, but when I think about the world I find myself working in today and the heterogeneous, specialized labor it demands and compare it to the sclerotic school system, I can't imagine the latter turning its wheels fast enough to deal with the problem.

I'm optimistic about the future of education, but mostly because I think there are plents of ways to go around the current system.

Brenner's words brought back heretical thoughts that I often have: most progressives like income inequality--as long as it is the right kind. If people with more schooling make more money, that is only right. Someone who dropped out of high school has no right to expect to get a good job.

Schooling is both a mechanism for "the intergenerational transmission of inequality" and a justification for it.

Education should be more free market, If you advocate vouchers, then the vouchers should be used also by non-college bound students for specific job training.