It is obvious that lack of adequate investment in training can exclude entire social groups from the benefits of economic growth. Growth can harm some groups while benefiting others (witness the recent displacement of workers in the more advanced economies by workers in China). In short, the principal force for convergence—the diffusion of knowledge—is only partly natural and spontaneous. It also depends in large part on educational policies, access to training and to the acquisition of appropriate skills, and associated institutions.
Reflect, for a moment upon the severe cuts to education funding in Arizona and to the deconstruction of established public education institutions through the official promotion of charter, private and parochial schools. It appears that, fundamentally this is a plan to preserve economic inequality.
