The Impact of Education on Economic Stability

By Robin Fleming

This month, we are asking how education, both formal and informal, and economic stability are related and what economic problems exist in our communities due to a lack of education.

At its most basic, education provides foundational knowledge, comprehension, and skills so that a person is able to use what is at their fingertips and survive in basic ways. This prepares an adult to track their income, pay bills, comparison shop, follow recipes, read IKEA instructions (maybe not), fill out a job application, make a bottle of baby formula, and so forth. Obviously, if students leave school without basic reading, comprehension, computational, and life skills, certain tasks will be impossible or more difficult without some resourcefulness.

Building on this foundation, a more valuable form of education is one that empowers an individual to think creatively and critically about the world around them, while enabling them to continue learning through various means. This prepares individuals for whatever challenges they may face in the future in a way that promotes healthy independence. Without this level of education, one may be more likely to unquestioningly accept the status quo that may actually be harming or oppressing them.

The highest form of education, the gaining and imparting of wisdom, is the ability to use the knowledge of facts as well as critical and creative thinking in ways that benefit others, oneself, and the earth. This is best done within a biblical framework where God’s words are honored and the teachings of Jesus Christ are foundational. Repeatedly, Scripture identifies the reverence of God as the beginning of knowledge and path to wholeness and abundant living.

So, what happens to the benefits of education in a setting of material poverty?

In an article published by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, it says that symptoms of poverty, “…often place more stress on a student, which can negatively impact the student’s ability to succeed in a school.”¹ The article mentions possible lack of access to the internet and less support from busy, tired parents, focused on making ends meet, as additional difficulties stacked against students. Additionally, because of property tax structures, schools in higher-poverty neighborhoods often receive far less money to pay teachers, buy materials, and so forth.

These factors make it more difficult for students to learn well, but the concerns go deeper. In an article from 2020, Peter W. Cookson Jr. quotes one study’s comment that “’poverty is tied to structural differences in several areas of the brain associated with school readiness skills, [more so in the poorest households]…As much as 20% of the gap in test scores could be explained by maturational lags in the frontal and temporal lobes.’”² When there is limited access to early education and/or unhealthy environmental conditions in the very early years, the parts of the brain affecting logical thinking, emotion regulation, sensory processing, memory, and language comprehension are significantly hindered.

This just scratches the surface, but I need to make one more point. Those who are intent on helping people move out of impoverished conditions need to think carefully about how they are doing that. It matters that we invest in others’ well-being in ways that are actually empowering and transformational. In his book, Toxic Charity, Robert Lupton cites example after example of well-intentioned efforts to help individuals and change communities where significant amounts of money and labor were invested only to have things devolve to how they were before. The short version is that when we do not do our homework and educate ourselves about what communities and individuals want, what their values are, what the challenges are, and how their culture operates, we disempower, disrespect, and harm those we are trying to help. Education is important for all of us.

¹“Poverty and Its Impact on Students’ Education,” National Association of Secondary School Principals, https://www.nassp.org/poverty-and-its-impact-on-students-education/.

²Peter W. Cookson, Jr., “A World of Hardship: Deep Poverty and the Struggle for Educational Equity,” Learning Policy Institute, October 6, 2020, https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/blog/covid-deep-poverty-struggle-education-equity.