Re: Class Idenfitication, Kathryn Ann Edwards wrote a post about this last week that goes into the data: thhttps://www.kedits.com/p/who-is-americas-working-class
Thank you. Read it. Edwards has on her "normative economist with a liberal bent" hat here, which has benefits and issues. Most basic consideration for me: "class" was originally (in the 19th century) a sociological category based on occupation; turning it into an issue of income level upends the entire infrastructure that Marx placed on it, which was that capitalists are extracting value from work done by those they employ. That discussion is still valid, and for Edwards to ignore actual class in favor of income seems to me to be methodologically questionable at best.
I don't disagee. She does advertise her not-a-political-scientist-ness at the beginning though!
And labor income is, in the absence of a good theory of identifying large groups of people's extractive power in the economy, a decent proxy for relative proletarian-ness, especially at the lower rungs.
Yes -- analysis by income provides useful information; however, it is not a proxy for class, which also remains a useful avenue of analysis, even though the popular definition of class has become mixed up with income.
As the parent of a third-grader, I am "entitled" (ambiguity intentional) to comment on the K-12 satisfaction article. Personal disclaimer: my daughter is at a Literature Magnet school which is also an IB (International Baccalaureate) Dual Language (Spanish-English) school in a poor Hispanic area (92%) of Houston ISD -- that is VERY specific. I'm unhappy about the effects of the Texas state takeover of the entire Houston ISD on my daughter's school -- it mandates massive administrative watching of teachers teaching and massive forcing of teachers to teach quickly, along with constant testing and evaluation and "teaching to the test", along with increasing state interference in the curriculum by forcing historical propaganda and Christianity. That said, I very much like the administrators of the school, who are stable, mutually helpful and responsive. The teaching level is what I would call "pretty good for Texas", which does not have high standards (I moved here 25 years ago after living in New Hampshire, where standards are higher, interference is less and teachers generally better -- and yes, I had children in those schools too).
There is a political emphasis in the article which I consider to be a signal of the problem with American K-12 education -- it is much too politicized (for which read that propaganda triumphs over objective analysis). No surprise that critical thinking is bottom of the barrel, given that political orientation is dominant in every conversation around education instead of "What does evidence of outcomes say is the appropriate teaching method?" and "What is the objective historical record for our government?" and "What are evidence-supported views of scientific subjects?"
Re: Class Idenfitication, Kathryn Ann Edwards wrote a post about this last week that goes into the data: thhttps://www.kedits.com/p/who-is-americas-working-class
Thank you. Read it. Edwards has on her "normative economist with a liberal bent" hat here, which has benefits and issues. Most basic consideration for me: "class" was originally (in the 19th century) a sociological category based on occupation; turning it into an issue of income level upends the entire infrastructure that Marx placed on it, which was that capitalists are extracting value from work done by those they employ. That discussion is still valid, and for Edwards to ignore actual class in favor of income seems to me to be methodologically questionable at best.
I don't disagee. She does advertise her not-a-political-scientist-ness at the beginning though!
And labor income is, in the absence of a good theory of identifying large groups of people's extractive power in the economy, a decent proxy for relative proletarian-ness, especially at the lower rungs.
Yes -- analysis by income provides useful information; however, it is not a proxy for class, which also remains a useful avenue of analysis, even though the popular definition of class has become mixed up with income.
As the parent of a third-grader, I am "entitled" (ambiguity intentional) to comment on the K-12 satisfaction article. Personal disclaimer: my daughter is at a Literature Magnet school which is also an IB (International Baccalaureate) Dual Language (Spanish-English) school in a poor Hispanic area (92%) of Houston ISD -- that is VERY specific. I'm unhappy about the effects of the Texas state takeover of the entire Houston ISD on my daughter's school -- it mandates massive administrative watching of teachers teaching and massive forcing of teachers to teach quickly, along with constant testing and evaluation and "teaching to the test", along with increasing state interference in the curriculum by forcing historical propaganda and Christianity. That said, I very much like the administrators of the school, who are stable, mutually helpful and responsive. The teaching level is what I would call "pretty good for Texas", which does not have high standards (I moved here 25 years ago after living in New Hampshire, where standards are higher, interference is less and teachers generally better -- and yes, I had children in those schools too).
There is a political emphasis in the article which I consider to be a signal of the problem with American K-12 education -- it is much too politicized (for which read that propaganda triumphs over objective analysis). No surprise that critical thinking is bottom of the barrel, given that political orientation is dominant in every conversation around education instead of "What does evidence of outcomes say is the appropriate teaching method?" and "What is the objective historical record for our government?" and "What are evidence-supported views of scientific subjects?"
FYI: The latest PISA scores on reading, math and science for 15-year-olds came out last week, and the US is doing OK on average, but has by far the highest gap between highest and lowest learning: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/3-takeaways-from-the-latest-pisa-test-of-reading-math-and-science/2026/09
Ian Underwood from Croyden, NH has lots to say about "evidence of outcomes" in school systems. You may find some of it interesting.
It IS interesting. It's a useful contribution to the discussion. Which is what I say about things that I don't agree with, but which might contribute to a better system... Here it is in a nutshell: https://sullivannhgop.com/2025/11/12/ian-underwood-speaking-at-the-monthly-scgop-meeting-11-november-2025/