When politicians claim that we need to educateour young people so we can better competeagainst China or other powers for economicpower, not only are they wielding public educa-tion to heighten tensions between countries, butthey are suggesting that the primary purpose ofpublic education is to create young employees,rather than to produce healthy, empathetic, andcivically active humans. This emphasis shifts theconversation around public education towardstrategies to improve test scores and ranked lists.In framing public education in this manner, thosein power perpetuate the inequalities and ineffec-tiveness that have plagued public education fordecade

The inequities within U.S. public education shouldnot be surprising. Public education in the U.S. existsto serve the economic structure by preparing stu-dents for the market economy