The state of Florida has just fallen off the flat, 6,000 year old earth they think we all live on (which, by the way we don’t). Florida’s House and Senate just passed legislation pushing religion into the science curriculum. Despite the claim of “academic freedom”, all Florida has done is to show that A) their state government, at least, is run by idiots; and B) they have condemned their students to receiving substandard science education.

Got kids in Florida? You may want to move.

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A major new addition has been added to the online repository for the works of Charles Darwin. The addition constitutes papers and first drafts of what would eventually become the Origin of Species. The evidence for evolution presented by the 19th century naturalist is astounding and Darwin’s theories underpin every biological discipline currently studied by man.

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A new study has been published indicating that wealth plays a role in how well students perform on tests in school, and in theory how well then they do in school [Black-White Achievement Gap and Family Wealth by Yeung, WJ, and Conley, D (New York University). Child Development, Vol. 79, Issue 2.]*

As reported on Science Daily, the reference to wealth has more to do with overall family assets than pure income:

“While wealth may help smooth consumption on a more short-term basis, the presence of wealth over time in a family (or extended family) may have a stronger impact of engendering a sense of economic security, future orientation, and the ability to take risks among all family members which, in turn, positively affect child development,” according to W. Jean Yeung, professor of sociology at New York University and the lead author of the study.

The key, I think, is the notion of stability. A family that has real assets (more than what they earn and spend in a given month) has the ability to save for the future, invest in educational aids, provide food and clothing on par with others, live in better neighborhoods, and allow their children the freedom to do extra things, such as play soccer or go to the library. Families with low incomes live hand-to-mouth and there is little talk of the future. A child in such an environment is asset poor and learns to view the world in an asset poor way. Why achieve if there is no future ability to capitalize on such achievement? So what if you get good grades if you can’t go to college to get the job that would put you into the asset rich world?

One needs only to look at developing countries to see this taken to the extreme. For too many people it is a struggle to find food on any given day. There is no thought of the future if every moment you are thinking about the pain in your stomach from lack of food. The result is you become trapped in the present with no notion that there is anything else.

Quite a few people in the US also struggle to get enough food, and unfortunately quite a few of them are minorities. Focused on the immediate, the gap between them and those with wealth grows. Income, though, is only one small part of this divide. Better housing at a lower price, for example, might allow someone even on a small income to save for the future. Higher salary does not always equate to stability (though, obviously, it doesn’t hurt).

Throwing more money at schools to improve achievement among the poor ultimately will not address the asset poor world from which these kids come. Pushing kids to pass a standardized test won’t give them a future.

We have to do more. That means we have to be willing redistribute some of the assets of the country. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, affordability is the key.

If we can’t afford to live, how can we actually then succeed at living? Maybe instead of giving money back to everyone here in the US we should use that monetary incentive to open up bank accounts for children living in poverty. They deserve a shot at the future more than most of us need to go shopping for new TVs.