Public education is failing because government does not provide adequate support to enable all schools to provide equal educational opportunity. The affluent have the ability to pay for private schools and to live in neighborhoods that provide adequate funding and resources for their schools. Poor neighborhoods have limited resources, reflected in poorly resourced, substandard schools that limit student achievement. Children are deprived of the education needed for employment and a healthy, productive life. They leave school without the knowledge and ability required to take on their roles in a democratic society and ensure that government addresses the needs of all the people.
The Supreme Court has decided that corporations and institutions should be treated as people, allowing them to donate to political campaigns, which results in elected representatives who are beholden to corporate beneficiaries. Extensive lobbying and generous election donations by the wealthy create an elite that thrives on exploiting the rest of the population. The wealthy have the freedom of time, access, and resources to satisfy their desires. Their contribution to society is limited, as they focus on increasing their wealth and manipulating others to support their desires. As a result, their desires can destroy normal life for those who must serve them. During the pandemic, the poor and the elderly often were victims of resource limitations that constrained their care. Those who could pay received care, but those who could not were left to suffer.
Our society claims to provide equal opportunity for all who are willing to work. However, it limits the income, diet, health care, and quality of education needed to take advantage of opportunities. Public schools are funded from taxes paid by local residents. Poor communities lack the funds to properly staff and supply their schools. Children must attend local schools unless their families can pay for alternatives. The wealthy can select private schools if they are not satisfied with neighborhood schools. The poor do not have that option.
Where is the equal opportunity? Government has abdicated its responsibility to address the needs of the neediest. Those with limited resources are born with disadvantages that members of the wealthy elite cannot understand or even imagine. We may be the wealthiest country on the planet, but our unregulated capitalist culture destroys democracy, destroys the environment, and destroys the lives of the least fortunate.