Comment
The problem of social justice is indeed one of overcoming those “who will fiercely defend the existing system, and their self-interest.” In the US there already is a “broad political consensus that social justice is a core social value.” There is broad agreement throughout the political spectrum that equality of opportunity is a core social value and the basis for social justice, but we hypocritically ignore that value as a nation. The fact that Teach for America teachers can raise a poor rural or urban class from the thirtieth percentile to the eightieth percentile in two years tells us that we are not providing equality of opportunity, but are throwing away talent and depriving both the nation and many of its children of economic opportunity. This is not a problem of funding. Paying unsatisfactory teachers more will not solve this problem.
I see no social justice in a college graduate with good grades who is burdened with the enormous debt required to buy a college education that is not dischargeable through bankruptcy working as a restaurant server for lack of the training and skills needed to fill the many job vacancies in the US. We have a very large number of unfilled jobs in IT and advanced manufacturing that provide economic security and a high standard of living. We must include the college faculty and administrators whose high salaries depend in large part on school loans who send their students off to a hopeless financial struggle in menial jobs after graduation amongst those pursuing self-interest at the expense of social justice.
Robert Y. Welles
1 http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/press/ac4fa3e2f7213310VgnVCM3000001c56f00aRCRD.htm
posted by Robert Welles
March 2, 2012