It is being set up, similar to smaller funds in the last decade, to remedy serious long-term economic problems. If poor children can get a good education, the U.S. economy can reduce the worrisome wage and income gaps that threaten to make America a counterproductive class society. Ten years ago, Levy pointed out that incomes of workers who had only a high school education were declining on average while those of college-educated people were rising. Central to those ominous trends are the failures of elementary and secondary education. Now he can't do math or geography or even U.S. history.
Every community wants better education, but few have a clear idea of how to get it.
Forstmann wants competition Into this national quandary steps Forstmann, who made a fortune in the 1980s through his leveraged buyout firm Forstmann, Little. The voucher program's support from a cross-section of political and economic leaders and its popularity with the people is evidence of rising political impatience with the failure of the public schools. The ridiculous spectacle of Congress passing a law to admit high-tech engineers from overseas while millions of poor American kids miss out on the best jobs because they never got a decent education is an indictment of the sloth and corruption in U.S. schools. That said, schools are not the only institutions facing change. Industries have changed.