Fairfax Democrats try to provide a safety net for all people while also keeping the market and society going to offer second chances. This means getting employers and education institutions to give people a second look and a second try even if their background has flaws. It especially means that being from a group does not hold you back from being given a chance for what you can contribute.
While total factor productivity’s measured rate of growth in the US since 1973 is only about one half of one percent a year, we are still a highly productive society. That includes producing new people who are highly skilled and productive.
In today’s economy and society, adding math and science skills has the biggest potential payoff for increasing total factor productivity. Math is a major of the standards of learning and is a major part of tracking progress in the schools for individuals or for schools in delivering education.
Math is an important school in higher education and is becoming more important. As technology becomes part of the workplace, math concepts are more important to be a user of the technology. Most of the value of new technology is not used. Math education helps people use the apps and technology a little more. That increases total factor productivity.
Second chances in schools includes improving the math curriculum so it makes more sense and removing the flaws that create cognitive dissonance in students and teachers. This frees students an teachers to learn or teach. Every part of math can be broken down to be easy. But this is only possible if the actual concepts of math are used to break it down into parts. If the parts don’t fit back together, then they create confusion and burnout and dropout. Making sure the parts fit back together is where deep understanding of math foundations is most important.
