The Texas Teaching Scandal

The Texas Tribune recently reported on a major teaching scandal in Harris County (Link to Article). Vincent Grayson, the longtime boys' basketball coach at Booker T. Washington High School, was running a scheme in which teachers could pay a $2,500 fee to cheat on their licensing exams. Over the course of the last four years, approximately 400 teachers might have taken part in this scandal, affecting the education of thousands of students. The domino effect of this incident interests me, as it is mathematically expansive. Not only will those affected children not be able to put faith in their institutions, but in this society, where everyone's time is highly compromised, they are likely to never catch up.

This makes me wonder how many other standards got overlooked, and what that means for our economy. Schools are actually highly influential to our markets and our future, as the education of the next generation will affect the current economy and lead the future economy. The effect of thousands of undereducated students will be felt exponentially, in diverse sectors and for generations. In economics, one of the ways to shift LRAS (long run aggregate supply) is to increase productivity. Economists consider education a key factor in increasing productivity, so if students do not get the proper education, at best, not increase productivity, and at worst, lower productivity.