Waiting for Superman: Bad Schools Cause Poverty...and Force Jobs Overseas

One of the most shocking messages of the film "Waiting for Superman" is that poorly-performing schools cause poverty in inner-city neighborhoods, and not the other way around. This stands on end the idea promoted by most social service and government agencies that poverty in inner-city (and rural areas) leads to poor performance at schools. By extension, if  bad schools cause poverty, then "Waiting for Superman" suggests that bad schools are also the cause of high levels of violence, increased levels of hunger and homelessness, and sending jobs overseas.

The film concludes that declining performance by students in math and science leads  firms like Microsoft to fill vacant jobs with overseas workers. In other words, US companies have no choice because there are not enough qualified candidates here. US firms apply to fill job openings here in the states through the H1B program. However, a much larger pool of non-US workers are employed through offshore service contracts, i.e., employing workers overseas through service contracts.

It's entirely misleading to suggest the decline in student performance in math and science causes companies to offshore jobs. The reason tech firms send work offshore to places like India is because of much lower wages. I worked for a tech company that paid for offshore work in India at one-third (33%) the rate comparable to work here. Specifically, the company billed internal work for around $57 per hour (this includes costs for wages, benefits, and other costs), while billing work for offshore services at $19 per hour.

Management drooled over this pay gap, then went shopping to companies like Satyam and Patni. And American tech firms continue to send jobs overseas, like HP's predicted cut of over 24,000 jobs and IBM's estimated 16-fold increase in offshoring jobs.

For an excellent article reviewing the film and digging deeper into the controversy, read "Grading 'Waiting for Superman'" from The Nation magazine.

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