Good piece in the Charlotte Business Journal on economics education. The upshot: if people knew more about economics, we wouldn’t have such bad economic policy coming out of Raleigh and Washington.
(Ironically, the same publication publishes this article. Economics education, indeed.)
The article did a good job of underscoring the importance of a basic level of economic understanding. Economic illiteracy can have profound effects not only one one’s voting patterns, but on one’s contribution to and place in the local economy. Senator Fred Smith has worked to push NC education to prepare students to compete in the state economy, and has called for improvements in curriculum. From this article, it sounds like one solid way to improve the curriculum is to incorporate more economics into the classroom.
We have to be careful, though. As a friend reminded me today, its not just that it gets taught but WHAT gets taught. Most kids learn that the TVA was good for America and helped bring us out of the Great Depression. Amity Shlaes dispels that myth in her new book. But kids still think that’s economics. (Yikes)
and might I add that just about the only place where Keynsian theory is still considered valid is the classroom.
Good point–it’s just more of the same indoctrination if schoolchildren are spoon-fed economic falsehoods. More Friedman, less Keynes.