All the way down:
Education is the foundation of modern society. It is highly regulated in almost every country, thus, the
absence of this regulatory institution would cause radical change in how it operates. I believe that this
change will emulate a new product entering the market, forcing it to adapt, subsequently creating a rift
between the classes. Firstly, education will be forced to diverge as it conforms to the purchasing
power of the masses, thus initiating the social divide. Secondly, I believe the nature of education will
change, adapting its curriculum so as to comply with the contemporary roles conceived by this
change. Finally, I believe the severity of the rift created will force the government to take actions to
quell social dilemmas.
Historically our society has been divided into social classes, consisting of upper, middle and working
class. This division is hierarchical so as to represent a division in socio-economic power1.
As a result of this, when a product is released it is marketed towards one of these classes, this is
“socioeconomic segmentation”. If the government were no longer involved I believe that education
would turn into a commodity, thus diverging as it undergoes socioeconomic segmentation. This is due
to the fact that education is expensive, for example, “Federal, state, and local governments spend
$720.9 billion, or $14,840 per pupil, to fund K-12 public education.”2. This funding comes almost
completely from the government hence, if these were absent there would be a void in the educational
funding and it would have to seek funding elsewhere. Given that, I believe that education would hence
imitate the practices of a new product and would hence undergo the aforementioned socioeconomic
segmentation. This is largely due to the fact that most products diverge according to their target
audience’s purchasing power.
For example laptops, a widely available product
that comes in many forms and are thus
marketed so that the “product will be seen to fit
more closely to their needs”3 one of these being
price. The graph seen in figure 14 demonstrates
the amount of laptops in a certain price range.
On the graph we can see three clear spikes
representing the three main socioeconomic
classes. This is a clear example of
socioeconomic segmentation on a widely
available product divided into classes. I believe
if education were to enter the market it would
undergo a similar phenomenon.
In fact, this already happens to an extent in
Chile education is divided into: private,
subsidized and public education. This is because the prices of these types of education vary in regards
to their target demographic. For example, a survey by the “diario de Concepcion” showed that in
Chile the average cost of private schools was $2,700,000 (CLP) per year whereas that of subsidized
schools was $900,000 (CLP) and state schools were free,5 following the same trend as the laptops.
This proves that education already carries an inherent bias to the different social classeswhen the
Goedemé, Paskov, Weisstanner, Nolan. Social class and earnings: a cross-national study
Hanson. “U.S. Public Education Spending Statistics.”
3
Ward. CE Entrepreneurship Market Segmentation
4
Kelepouris. “Laptop Prices.”
5
Mora. “Promedio Anual 2020 De Colegiaturas Supera Los $2.700.000 En Particulares.”
1
2
government is involved. Thus, if the government were to withdraw, I believe this effect would
intensify.
Given this, I believe education will separate into private and technical institutions.
In the event that the government were no longer involved in education I believe that private schools
would be unaffected due to their private funding and would likely see an influx of new students.
This is because their prices wouldn't change due to nearly all private schools being non-profit, as
demonstrated by the quote: “of the 3,982 institutions listed by NCES, there were 1,625 public
four-year and two-year colleges; 1,660 private nonprofit four-year and two-year schools; and 697
for-profit schools in fall 2019”6, and 7% of the middle class already attends private schools7. Hence, if
the prices of private schools won't change, it is logical to assume that a portion of the middle class
will rearrange their assets so as to send their children to private schools. This will contribute to the
divergence of education as it conforms to the market and will leave a large chunk of the middle and
lower class out of education because they can't afford private education. Thus, leaving a prime
audience in the market.
Finally, I believe what is left of the middle and lower class will be the target of technical institutions
offering low-cost education. This means that if the market were to become void, companies would see
an opportunity to provide education on the promise that the students would then work for them in the
future, like the Airbus apprenticeships we see nowadays, that offer a degree and specific training in
that company.8 This will lead to a great polarization as private institutions train for higher-skilled jobs
and poorer students are left with more technical ones. This will begin the creation of the rift in society.
Products are marketed towards the needs of their target audience. For example, the mean salary of a
mechanical engineer is $102,500 as opposed to the national average of $56,3109. Laptops for
engineers require the use of CAD software and the requirements for CAD are high. In fact, the system
requirements for fusion360, a popular engineering CAD are a quad-core processor and a dedicated
GPU with at least 1GB of Vram.10 These high requirements means a higher cost of the laptop.
Therefore, the laptops are tailored to their audience's needs. I believe something similar will happen
with education, those who make more money will look for higher quality education and hence schools
in different socioeconomic sectors will change in accordance to these needs.
I believe that curriculum is a crucial aspect in differentiating types of education, therefore I believe
that this is the aspect that is set to change. According to Dr Mellisa Williams curriculum “standardizes
the learning goals for an entire school and provides a clear path for students to progress”. In our
context the “goals” of a school are preparing students for jobs therefore if the goals change due to
different types of the schools the “paths”, curriculum, will change. Hence, in a capitalist market,
education will likely change its curriculum to conform to the buyer's needs as it is its defining aspect.
Given these two factors I believe that the curriculum will become more specific in accordance with
the market's needs. This happens in Chile with their “preuniversitarios”. These institutions are
extracurricular schools that serve to prepare students for Chile’s national university exam. They are
completely private, highly specified and extremely competitive. These schools have a goal and cater
only to that goal: the entrance exam. They advertise their students' scores and give discounts for good
performance, those that attend these schools do better in the test, as stated by “Preuniversitario pedro
Moody. “How Many Universities Are in the U.S. and Why That Number Is Changing | Best Colleges
| US News.”
7
Murnane, Reardon, Mbekeani, and Lamb. “Who Goes to Private School?”
8
Airbus. Pupils and Apprentices.
9
US bureau of labour statistics. “May 2020 National Occupational Employment and Wage
Estimates.”
10
Autodesk Support. “System Requirements for Autodesk Fusion 360.”
6
de validiva”, one of the largest “pre-universitario” chains in Chile, 52% of the perfect scores come
from their alumni.11 Thus students who don't go to private school but attend “pre-universitarios”
compete for places in prestigious colleges. This is what I believe the new form of education would
imitate; certain schools would have a goal and would focus solely on this goal, competing with private
schools. This will create pressure for the private schools who will no longer have a monopoly on
higher paying jobs as new institutions will offer competition. However, ultimately, I believe that
private schools will come out on top as they will simply have more money to tend to the resources
necessary for success. As seen in the ranking of the schools with the highest average score only one
was a state school.12 Thus, taking account of the divergence of education into technical and private
schools, I believe that private schools would optimize their curriculum for higher paying jobs and
technical schools will attempt competition with private schools but will mostly fail and be left with
other jobs.
If education is to be governed by private companies I believe companies from other countries may
begin exporting education. This can already be observed with foregin language schools. Companies
such as Bell claim to be a “high-quality education business with five other UK centres, and
international hubs in Switzerland and China ''.13 This means that if education was completely
privatized more businesses would form, likely offering courses in other countries so as to acquire a
larger audience. This would mean that education would turn into a competitive international
commodity.
Given that the curriculum has become more specialized I believe that education will play a larger role
in which job you pursue. Nowadays 27% of college graduates work in a field related to their job14. I
believe this is because education is so varied that people have a solid foundation in which to base their
experience. Thus, if education were to reduce its diversity, by changing the curriculum, I believe this
statistic will see a rapid increase. If children are admitted into a technical academy I find it unlikely
they will become anything other than what they were taught as they will have no foundation on which
to base their experience.
Given that education will now play a larger role in determining your career, I believe social tensions
will escalate, as the poor become unable to access high paying jobs.
In 2019 a group of Chilean students began protesting against the highly unequal education system.
They said “Someone who could afford a good high school education will get into university and then
get a good job. Someone who goes to a poor school won’t be well prepared, so they won’t get in and
they’ll end up as a spare part for the workforce in our country.”15 If education were to enter the market
it would be significantly more unequal than Chile’s current education system. I believe similar
tensions would begin to form and eventually break out into protests.
In Chile, protests started due to an increase in subway fares but later incorporated the greater
inequality present in Chilean society.16 In this case, I believe that the protests will start off as
educational protests and then expand to include the other problems produced by unequal jobs and
opportunities. This will force the government to fix its mistakes or risk a civil war.
Preuniversitario pedro de valdivia. “Puntaje: Los Resultados Que Nos Hacen Líder En Pruebas De
Selección a La Universidad.”
12
Tele13. “Estos Son Los Colegios Con Mejores Promedios En La PSU.”
13
Bell English. “The Bell Story”
14
Abel, Deitz. “Do Big Cities Help College Graduates Find Better Jobs?”
15
Nugent. “Why Students in Chile Are Protesting College Admission Tests.”
16
Borselli. What's behind Chile's Protests.
11
To respond to the demands of the populus regarding the income inequality brought about by the
polarization of the workforce, the government would have to implement mechanisms to fix the
inequality. According to John A. Powell some of these could include, increasing minimum wage,
expanding earned income tax and building assets for working families.17 Increasing the minimum
wage could currently “help nearly 4.6 million people out of poverty”.18 Expanding earned income tax
would reduce the cost of taxes for the poorest thus allowing them to put more money towards
education increasing their social mobility. Building assets for working class families would grant them
greater economic security thus reducing economic inequality. These policies might quell the demands
of the general population but the problem causing these protests remains unaddressed, education
cannot be fixed as it is separate from the government, that raises the question: why not nip the
problem in the bud?
Education is one of the main ways to promote equality, removing it is an extremely counterintuitive
measure. John a. Powel also claimed that education is one of the best ways to reduce inequality as it
promotes social mobility, thus the question must be asked: why would one employ this law?
In conclusion, if education were to stop being funded by the government it would emulate a new
product entering the market diverging so as to conform to the purchasing power of the masses and
creating a divide between them. This divide will change the type of education received by each class
and will have a more powerful effect on their careers. This will create a highly unequal society which
will eventually erupt into mass protests forcing the government to invest more money into social
welfare schemes calling into question the efficiency of a measure.. Education is one of the pillars of
equality and removing fair and quality education for everyone is extremely counterproductive.
Therefore I conclude that this measure is utterly ridiculous and strongly condemn it.
Bibliography:
Abel, Jaison R., and Richard Deitz. “Do Big Cities Help College Graduates Find Better Jobs?”
Liberty Street Economics, May 20, 2013.
https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2013/05/do-big-cities-help-college-graduates-fin
d-better-jobs.html#.VY21bqbjLbw.
“Airbus”. “Pupils and Apprentices.” Airbus, n.d..
https://www.airbus.com/careers/pupils-and-apprentices.html.
"Autodesk, Support". “System Requirements for Autodesk Fusion 360.” System requirements
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https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticl
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"Bell, Story". “The Bell Story.” Bell English, October 27, 2020.
https://www.bellenglish.com/about-bell/the-bell-story/.
Borselli, Maria. “What's behind Chile's Protests.” Atlantic Council, December 10, 2019.
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/whats-behind-chiles-protests/.
17
powell.“Six Policies to Reduce Economic Inequality.”
powell.“Six Policies to Reduce Economic Inequality.”
18
Goedemé, Tim, Marii Paskov, David Weisstanner , and Brian Nolan. Social class and earnings:
a cross-national study, January 17, 2020.
https://doi.org/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338899259_Social_class_and_earnings
_a_cross-national_study.
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https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics.
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Particulares.” Diario Concepción, January 18, 2020.
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