How to Improve Economic Opportunities

Today Obama met with African-American leaders today to talk about ideas to improve economic opportunities for "blacks."  No Hispanic, Asian, nor Jewish leadership attended.  I have not seen the invitation list, but I am going out on a limb to say that they were not invited.  I will also assume that Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP; Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League; and the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network all had the best interests of all minorities in mind and not just the minority that they belong to.  That's a leap, but let's just assume.

President Obama has continually stated that he cannot enact strategies that will only help African Americans, but that he is willing to do regionally targeted economic strategies.  Taken on its face, that is a very righteous philosophy.  He has stated "This is about place.  It's not about race."  Mr. Obama, I could not agree more.

So lets get down to it.  Realizing that we are living in a post-racial era, the color of someone's skin no longer prevents them from getting a job.  So, what is the issue here?  I think it could be education.  That's right, Obama hit the nail right on the head.  The problem is with place.  Specifically speaking, just look at school statistics.  The places that have been hit the worst in regards to job loss also have the worst schools.  The government can do all the short-term, capital injection, handout programs it wants to, but none of this will help the people that are in need feed themselves tomorrow.  I am not saying that these programs cannot be pursued, but they are completely ineffective without accompanying long-term goals as well. 

Lets fix our education system.  That is the long-term solution to this mess that we have now.  As with so many of the other issues that our government faces, we cannot just patch the system that is in place and expect a better result tomorrow.  We need real change, this is ground-up change.  Will there be capital investment?  YES.  But we are not going to burn the schools to the ground, we can use them in the new system.  We need to look at these large issues facing us like a child looks at legos.  The piece, once disassembled, will (mostly) have uses in the new system.

Why does our government seem to always want to take something that is failing and "slap a new coat of paint on it" then tell us that everything will be OK.  News flash, most of the systems that our government has put in place are failing.  Please stop "fixing" things that should be rebuilt from the ground up.  Only then will you truly have anything nearing equality of economic advantage.

It is not a good thing that people continue to say that race is the issue.  I am not saying that there is no longer any racial tension, but race is no longer the biggest factor in economic inequality.  Education is.  Look for the underlying reasons for the educational imbalance and fix the problem at the root level.  That is the movement I will support.