The Poor in America

There is a high school in America that has just now gotten the internet, but its computers run on Windows 3.1. No student has high-speed internet in the home, in fact, none of them have myspace or facebook accounts, not even at school or the library. The only computer programming classes it offers are in an archaic language that isn't even used anymore. They have no formal cellphone policy, because none of the students has yet had the means to obtain one. Many sports teams have to practice in a basement gymnasium not even big enough to house a regulation basketball court. The main football field is still grass and dirt and does not employ new FieldTurf, even in a very cold climate.

Imagine sending a child from this school into today's workforce and expecting them to compete with high school and college graduates who have been well trained in the latest technology.

This was my high school, from which I graduated in 1997. You say you're liberal because the poor are getting poorer, because the middle class is going away? I argue that the poor are now better off than they've ever been. Name a poor kid today who had as little technological training in their developmental years as I had in an upper-middle-class suburban high school. Even the homeless have myspace. Let it rest. The keys to wealth and happiness do not rest in more funding.