The Ontario system has more than two million public school students — more than in 45 American states and the District of Columbia. But the contrast to the American system could not be more clear. Ontario, for example, strives to eliminate or at least minimize the funding inequality that would otherwise exist between poor and wealthy districts. In most American states, however, the wealthiest, highest-spending districts spend about twice as much per pupil as the lowest-spending districts, according to a federal advisory commission report. In some states, including California, the ratio is more than three to one.
Bankers fear inequality
Financial circles are taking note of how economic inequity, social exclusion and other injustices can no longer be tolerated or covered up as in the past. While bankers don’t have solutions for this, it is telling that in meetings where the principal concern is how to make more money, the worry about inequality becoming a significant source of instability now appears with much more urgency than in any of the meetings in preceding years.
It doesn’t matter if this is because bankers are becoming more socially conscious or if they fear social turmoil is bad for business. What’s interesting is that a topic that has rarely been a part of these conversations is now as frequently mentioned by the world’s financiers as the possible default of the U.S. government.