California cutting honors classes to address racial equity

[moguldreamer]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

The irony is CA has one of the largest Gini coefficients of any state. That means the gap between the rich and poor is higher here than most states. In fact, the wealth distribution is similar to Mexico or other Latin American countries.

This is a GOOD thing. Strike that; it is a GREAT thing.


When high school or university social justice club students start down the "income inequality" road, it sometimes is useful to make the issue tangible using real people.

Let's take the story of Elisha Graves Otis. Elisha Otis was born in Vermont in 1811, and was a master mechanic, having invented many safety devices and labor saving devices used in bedstead factories in the Northeast US. One such invention was what he named the "Safety Hoist" - it had an ingenious safety device that prevented it from falling if its lifting rope or chain broke. Lives that might be lost were saved.

He went out on his own, setting up shop in Yonkers, NY and sold the world's first Safety Freight Elevator Machine on September 20, 1853. To demonstrate just how safe it was, the following spring he installed a Safety Freight Elevator in NYC, famously riding in it up high and ordering a helper to CUT THE LIFT ROPE. He went on to patent independently controlled steam engines to raise and lower the Safety Elevator, and many more improvements as well.

Elisha Otis became a very wealthy man. So in the parlance of Income Inequality, by inventing what we now think of as modern elevators, Elisha Otis ADDED TO income inequality. After all, he was making money hand over fist while the other millions of Americans were plodding along with their lives as usual (most Americans were directly involved with agriculture at that time).

But although the wealth gap between this man, inventor Elisha Otis, and his customers was higher than it was before the invention, the customers got a product they valued that made their lives both better and easier. In economic terms, the wealth of these customers increased slightly while Otis' wealth increased greatly.

Is that increase in wealth inequality a problem? When I’ve asked not particularly bright high school students this question, most all agree it is not a problem. Ditto for Freshman Econ students. Graduate level Econ students are smart enough that they don't need this example to comprehend the issue.

You can substitute any prominent inventor into the anecdote with the same results. You could recount the story of Robert McCulloch who in the 1940s invented a light one-man chain-saw. Or you could Describe the life of Robert Noyce who invented the Integrated Circuit and went on to co-found Intel Corporation. Or Steve Wozniak & his partner Steve Jobs. Or Jeff Bezos. Etc.

In each case, by virtue of technical innovation, many inventors become wealthy - adding to income inequality and its cousin wealth inequality. In each case, the customers were better off than they were before the invention.

[moguldreamer]

The Impact of Public School Choice: Evidence from Los Angeles’ Zones of Choice

That's the title of a newly accepted manuscript forthcoming in the prestigious Quarterly Journal of Economics https://academic.oup.com/qje/advance...jad052/7304429

Here's the abstract (emphasis added):

"Does a school district that expands school choice provide better outcomes for students than a neighborhood-based assignment system? This paper studies the Zones of Choice (ZOC) program, a school choice initiative of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) that created small high school markets in some neighborhoods but left attendance zone boundaries in place throughout the rest of the district. We study market-level impacts of choice on student achievement and college enrollment using a differences-in-differences design. Student outcomes in ZOC markets increased markedly, narrowing achievement and college enrollment gaps between ZOC neighborhoods and the rest of the district. The effects of ZOC are larger for schools exposed to more competition, supporting the notion that competition is a key channel. Demand estimates suggest families place substantial weight on schools’ academic quality, providing schools with competition-induced incentives to improve their effectiveness. The evidence demonstrates that public school choice programs have the potential to improve school quality and reduce neighborhood-based disparities in educational opportunity."

This looks quite promising.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by moguldreamer

The Impact of Public School Choice: Evidence from Los Angeles’ Zones of Choice

That's the title of a newly accepted manuscript forthcoming in the prestigious Quarterly Journal of Economics https://academic.oup.com/qje/advance...jad052/7304429

Thekdog posted this link upthread. The Zones of Choice program is a school choice initiative that created small high school markets in some neighborhoods but left attendance-zone boundaries in place throughout the rest of the district. ZOC, which is an initiative of LAUSD, is not a traditional school voucher program.

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by moguldreamer

This is a GOOD thing. Strike that; it is a GREAT thing.


When high school or university social justice club students start down the "income inequality" road, it sometimes is useful to make the issue tangible using real people.

Let's take the story of Elisha Graves Otis. Elisha Otis was born in Vermont in 1811, and was a master mechanic, having invented many safety devices and labor saving devices used in bedstead factories in the Northeast US. One such invention was what he named the "Safety Hoist" - it had an ingenious safety device that prevented it from falling if its lifting rope or chain broke. Lives that might be lost were saved.

He went out on his own, setting up shop in Yonkers, NY and sold the world's first Safety Freight Elevator Machine on September 20, 1853. To demonstrate just how safe it was, the following spring he installed a Safety Freight Elevator in NYC, famously riding in it up high and ordering a helper to CUT THE LIFT ROPE. He went on to patent independently controlled steam engines to raise and lower the Safety Elevator, and many more improvements as well.

Elisha Otis became a very wealthy man. So in the parlance of Income Inequality, by inventing what we now think of as modern elevators, Elisha Otis ADDED TO income inequality. After all, he was making money hand over fist while the other millions of Americans were plodding along with their lives as usual (most Americans were directly involved with agriculture at that time).

But although the wealth gap between this man, inventor Elisha Otis, and his customers was higher than it was before the invention, the customers got a product they valued that made their lives both better and easier. In economic terms, the wealth of these customers increased slightly while Otis' wealth increased greatly.

Is that increase in wealth inequality a problem? When I’ve asked not particularly bright high school students this question, most all agree it is not a problem. Ditto for Freshman Econ students. Graduate level Econ students are smart enough that they don't need this example to comprehend the issue.

You can substitute any prominent inventor into the anecdote with the same results. You could recount the story of Robert McCulloch who in the 1940s invented a light one-man chain-saw. Or you could Describe the life of Robert Noyce who invented the Integrated Circuit and went on to co-found Intel Corporation. Or Steve Wozniak & his partner Steve Jobs. Or Jeff Bezos. Etc.

In each case, by virtue of technical innovation, many inventors become wealthy - adding to income inequality and its cousin wealth inequality. In each case, the customers were better off than they were before the invention.

If you want to live in CA and not live like a third world rat you need a good job with an income well above the average and median. Far too many in CA live in substandard hell hole conditions.

How do most people do that?

A good education that confers worthwhile job skills. A rising tide can lift all boats but a falling tide increases the risk for everyone their boat will run aground.

[MKTwet]

Eventually, just like it's happening already is that white collar jobs are disappearing due to AI, automation, and lower CapEX spending due to high inflation and high interest rates. Blue collar skill labor is where the real money is at right now. Anyone who goes to get a 4 yr degrees today with debt will be stuck with lower job opportunities and lower pay.

If you go paint houses right now, say you charge $175-200/room. You can make about $1k/day tax free cash pay. That translates to be about $20k/month just to do a very modest skill labor.

I know guys that rake in between $2-5k/day just doing plumbing work.

[rainroosty]

Originally Posted by MKTwet

Eventually, just like it's happening already is that white collar jobs are disappearing due to AI, automation, and lower CapEX spending due to high inflation and high interest rates. Blue collar skill labor is where the real money is at right now. Anyone who goes to get a 4 yr degrees today with debt will be stuck with lower job opportunities and lower pay.

If you go paint houses right now, say you charge $175-200/room. You can make about $1k/day tax free cash pay. That translates to be about $20k/month just to do a very modest skill labor.

I know guys that rake in between $2-5k/day just doing plumbing work.

So you know some criminals.

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by MKTwet

Eventually, just like it's happening already is that white collar jobs are disappearing due to AI, automation, and lower CapEX spending due to high inflation and high interest rates. Blue collar skill labor is where the real money is at right now. Anyone who goes to get a 4 yr degrees today with debt will be stuck with lower job opportunities and lower pay.

If you go paint houses right now, say you charge $175-200/room. You can make about $1k/day tax free cash pay. That translates to be about $20k/month just to do a very modest skill labor.

I know guys that rake in between $2-5k/day just doing plumbing work.

If white collar people can’t afford anything they won’t pay blue collar workers to fix their homes.

While repetitive low skill white collar jobs like customer service roles may be replaced by AI it’s unlikely high end roles ever will. No one will hire an AI chatbot to be their lawyer in a murder trial or do brain surgery on them. And there will be plenty of work fixing broken machines or developing new AI software.

[Leona Valley]

White and Asian students be damned.

[NORTY FLATZ]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

No one will hire an AI chatbot to be their lawyer in a murder trial or do brain surgery on them.

MAKO is not far off....