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Education should also prioritize civic readiness, not just vocational training.

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Allen, Danielle. What Is Education For_2016

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Education should prioritize civic / participatory readiness, not just vocational training and STEM skills.

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Vocational and STEM education adequately addresses inequality by spreading technical skills that reduce wage premiums, compress income distribution, and prepare students for competitive global employment.

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Economic inequality results from political choices, not just skill gaps, making civic education essential for addressing inequality through political participation.

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Political institutions and policy decisions—not merely technology or skill distribution—determine economic outcomes.

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Economist Joseph Stiglitz: "inequality has been a choice"

Rodrik, Acemoglu, Robinson: Political institutions determine how technology evolves, markets function, and economic gains are distributed

Piketty: "Hypermeritocracy" ideology shapes inequality beyond wage premiums

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Achieving economic equality requires political change, not just skill dissemination.

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Rodrik: "Today's world economy is the product of explicit decisions that governments had made in the past"

Reining in inequality requires social and political change, not only technical skills

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Liberal arts education increases political participation more effectively than STEM education.

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Humanities graduates participate in politics at significantly higher rates than STEM graduates.

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Political scientist Sunshine Hillygus's controlled study found humanities education increases engagement even after controlling for preexisting political interest

Department of Education data reveals systematic participation differences

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• 92.8% humanities vs 83.5% STEM graduates have voted

• 44.1% humanities vs 30.1% STEM graduates wrote to officials (50% higher!)

• High SAT verbal scores → increased participation
• High SAT math scores → decreased participation

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Verbal skills and social analytical abilities specifically drive participatory readiness.

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• Glaeser, Ponzetto, Shleifer: "attainment in the verbal domain correlates with participatory readiness"

• Reading, writing, collaboration are "the basic instruments of political action"

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Democratic citizenship requires broad intellectual skills from history, philosophy, literature, and social sciences—not merely technical competencies.

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Democratic citizenship requires broad intellectual skills from history, philosophy, literature, and social sciences—not merely technical competencies.

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Citizens must make complex judgments about political systems requiring knowledge across multiple disciplines.

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• Declaration of Independence: Citizens have right to "alter or abolish" government and "institute new Government"

• 2006 NY court: "Meaningful civic participation" includes understanding complex ballot propositions and DNA evidence

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Court mandated 12th-grade verbal and math skills and advanced social studies and economics

• Requires: history, social sciences, philosophy, literature, arts, math (statistical reasoning)

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America's founders designed democracy using liberal arts education, demonstrating its necessity for democratic participation.

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• Founders who designed representative democracy "were broadly and deeply educated in history, geography, philosophy, literature, and art"

• Current participation requires same disciplines founders used

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Historical examples: Expanded political participation drove economic reforms in 19th-century Britain and early 20th-century America

• Government choices on financial regulation shaped today's inequality