The education system in the United States is in crisis. Students who attend high-minority, low-income schools are less likely to achieve success than those who attend white, middle-income schools. This comes from a variety of traits present in low-income schools, including inadequate funding and resources and low parental involvement. Education in the United States is a positional good, which significantly decreases the relative value of our education system. Until this is remedied, there is little we can do to transform education reform in order to benefit disadvantaged and privileged populations alike. That being said, there are some changes we can implement that could help even out the education system and make education in the United States less of a positional good which mainly lie in diversifying the socioeconomics of cities and suburbs.
I begin by addressing and defining various phrases within the prompt. A "positional good" is a good that is used as a symbol of status. We would traditionally see positional goods in the form of fancy cars or jewels-goods that exhibit the owner's wealth or standing. These goods are in scarce supply, which leads only a portion of the population to be able to obtain them. Education in the United States is a definite positional good, and this reality is the main problem with the system itself. A so-called "good" education in our country is only accessed by a certain segment of the population. This segment is usually suburban, white, and middle to upper-class. This leaves a massive portion of the country out of the equation and in search of ways to access the extremely positional good of satisfactory American education. This phenomenon is not by any means characteristic of education worldwide. In Finland, for example, free education is provided for every citizen from birth to the University level. This makes education there the opposite of a positional good-education in Finland is a good that everyone has equal access to.
