DN Editorial: EGALITARIAN EDUCATION

PHILADELPHIA'S future is dependent on the future of its children. Most parents know that. And most parents - rich, poor and middle-class - want a better life for their children.

They also know, in their gut, that the path to that better life is an education.

There is a vast aspiring class of parents in this city who spend an enormous amount of time and effort seeking a good education for their kids. They join the admissions lottery at charter schools. They sometimes move to be in the catchment area of a good public school. Some even home-school their children, convinced there are no good alternatives.

It makes a lot of sense to believe that there is a link between education and achievement in life, but little statistical proof.

But, we now have the hard evidence. Temple's Center on Regional Politics recently commissioned a study by the Rand Corp. to quantify the benefits of education - and also the cost of low achievement.

According to the study, if this state could eliminate the achievement gap between rich and poor, whites and students of other races, it would have a major effect on the state's gross domestic product, increasing it by at least $1 billion to $2 billion a year.

And it would have an effect on the students themselves, increasing lifetime earnings by $1 billion and $3 billion for each graduating class of students statewide.

Being proficient in reading and math is the key factor and, as the Rand study points out, too many Pennsylvania students lack that proficiency.

According to its analysis of standardized test scores, the study notes that African-American and Latino students in this state are behind their white counterparts by the equivalent of about three years. The white boy reading at an eighth-grade level could be sitting next to a Latino boy reading at a fifth-grade level.

The same is true of poorer students. Even eliminating race and ethnicity as a factor, there is still a contrast between rich and poor students, amounting to two or three years on average. A middle-class or rich white girl doing math at a sixth-grade level, could be sitting behind a poor white girl performing at a third- or fourth-grade level.

No one believes it will be easy to eliminate these gaps, but the Temple-sponsored study adds a new perspective to the tired debate over education. That debate centers on the burden placed on taxpayers to provide education.

The Temple study quantifies the long-term cost to the state of not adequately educating our children and eliminating the achievement gap.

According to this study, though, money spent on education seems more like an investment that will yield benefits, if wisely spent. The study does not put a price tag on such an investment, but emphasizes targeting the money to programs that are proven to work - such as early childhood education.

(That's why it's especially disappointing that the Senate just rejected an amendment to the No Child Left Behind reauthorization sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey that would have increased investment in Pre-K programs.)

We have too many students in this state who never graduate from high school. And we have too many students who, if they do graduate, have only minimal skills in the fundamentals of math and reading.

These students are the educational undead: zombies who will wander the landscape with a low-pay or no-pay existence, caught in the same morass of poverty as their parents.

We can do better. And the Temple study explains why we must do better.