Back to school for dollars and sense

Published 7:49 pm Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Being past the years of having kids in schools, it’s easy to overlook local education and the impact it has on the immediate economy.

It’s hard to see cute children in backpacks and envision our future workforce.  Additionally, it is also less obvious the impact that education has on other outcomes, including such social factors as whether individuals will marry, whether their children will grow up in two parent families and even projections on how long they will live.

All this is partially hinged on the education we give our children.
Education, it is agreed, is the surest path out of poverty and to an upward mobility, but our model of the educational avenue to take in achieving economic and social success is changing.

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What’s even more apparent is that the gap between highly educated and less educated continues to grow, creating startling results.
The Hamilton Project, a program of The Brookings Institute, has studied the outcomes of the widening education gap and produced economic evidence that an excellent local education system improves lives.