Politics & Power Quote by Alphonso Jackson

“Education is the last great equalizer” is an old American promise with a hard edge: if we can’t agree on reparations, redistribution, or even basic anti-discrimination enforcement, we can at least agree on schools. Alphonso Jackson, speaking as a public servant, leans into that civic consensus. The line is designed to sound non-ideological and forward-facing, a policy argument that doubles as a moral one. “Progress” becomes something measurable and administrable: test scores, graduation rates, college entry, job mobility.

The intent is pragmatic persuasion. By framing “good schools” as the hinge for Black advancement, Jackson offers a solution that fits comfortably inside mainstream governance, philanthropy, and bipartisan rhetoric. It’s also a strategic narrowing. If education is the “last” equalizer, other equalizers have either failed or been abandoned: housing policy, labor power, wealth-building, healthcare access, criminal justice reform. The sentence implicitly relocates responsibility from structures to systems that feel more tractable, and sometimes to families and students themselves. That’s the risk baked into the uplift frame: it can inspire investment, but it can also become a polite way to sidestep deeper redistribution.

Context matters because “good schools” in the U.S. are rarely just about pedagogy. They’re about property taxes, district lines, segregation by zip code, and the accumulated advantages of wealth. The quote works rhetorically by offering hope without naming the fight required to make schools genuinely equalizing. It’s a call to action that also reassures listeners they can keep the rest of the status quo intact.