The Reagan Revolution

The political right is slowly but surely achieving the "Reagan revolution". They are moving wealth from the hands of the bottom 90% to the top 1%, they are removing "upward mobility" from the workforce, and they have brought education to a standstill:

Click to Enlarge
The above graph is from a post by Matthew Yglesias at the Think Progress blog. Here is his sad commentary:

... throughout our history, America has traditionally been the best educated country in the world. That goes all the way back to New England’s settlement by Bible-obsessed Puritans who through up schools everywhere so kids could learn to read the word of God. It continues through Justin Smith Morrill’s Land Grant Colleges Act, through an emphasis on being an attractive destination for high-skill workers, through to the GI Bill, and public school desegregation in the twenty years after 1955. But we’ve really slowed down. Our fancy colleges are getting more expensive rather than getting bigger or better. The downscale for-profit college sector is dynamic and innovative, but it’s basically a scam where barely anyone graduates. We’re not investing in high-quality preschool, we’re shutting the door on skilled migrants, and we’re not investing in effective job training programs. On top of that, we’ve created housing policies that generally make it too expensive for low-income families to move to school districts whose public school perform well!

I think right wingers in America are dancing with glee. They want a two tier society. And when you turn the bottom 90% into "servants" you don't want them to be too educated. Back in Antebellum America it was illegal to teach a slave to read. I suspect that day is coming in the not too distant future.