Invest in people, not legacy universities

The closed Hoover factory in North Canton, Ohio, on May 17. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

In his Oct. 10 op-ed, “Don’t ignore our distressed regions,” Lawrence H. Summers lamented that “U.S. citizens no longer share a common lived experience.” When have we ever had such a common experience? Entitled white males, yes, but everyone else much less so. 

A university education costs way too much and educates too few in general. Until recently, universities happily bumped applicants of a lesser pedigree for a legacy — talk about an entitled Ferris wheel. I could never get on it, and a laid-off machinist certainly could not. Universities had to be created by and specifically for African Americans.

No wonder populist notions have so much traction and elites are scorned. I am sick of this mind-set that we have lost something. The United States has yet to achieve any sense of common opportunity or wealth. Basic demographics and statistics underscore this. I suggest that rust belts become university belts. Try investing in people. Stop acting like there is a savior tax break that will fix this when the biggest fix is, like it or not, educated human capital.

Victoria Brombacher, Vienna

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