Our society, in theory, places a strong emphasis on the free market in which being the best or most productive is rewarded. There is tremendous faith in the ability of the market to weed out those who cannot compete and elevate those who are exceptional. The American education system is considered an important component of meritocracy, leveling the playing field for those who do not come from privileged backgrounds. Education gives an opportunity to everyone to excel. With so much inequality built into American society, education is used as a means of addressing the problems of that inequality. The thinking is that those that succeed in school, an institution in which everyone participates, are those best prepared for being productive parts of the economy regardless of where they started, family background or race. The education system in theory is blind to all those outside factors and only pays attention to what happens inside the classroom. Whether this is true or not is of great importance to our view of what exactly our education system does. If it does not allow the best to rise the highest regardless of demographic factors then it cannot be used as a means of creating social equality. Much of our emphasis on education has to do not only with remaining competitive in the international system but also on curing many of our social ills. Many of the social ills that education is thought to address like racial and economic inequality would have to be addressed in other manners if the system is not based on merit. In this situation education could no longer be considered the cure all of inequality unless the entire system was completely overhauled.
