One of the least discussed but most important reason for increasing the minimum wage is its effect on schools and student learning. If you were a working mother trying by holding two minimum wage jobs to keep her two children with her, can you imagine what a difference that $80 (less taxes) will mean to that family? Or to a family with both parents in minimum wage jobs and what extra work they can find? It is very difficult for those of us who can afford to buy a newspaper without thinking of the cost, to put ourselves in the place of those parents. But we hear so much about programs to involve parents in low income neighborhoods in their child's schooling, without thinking of the major reason they are not involved. They don't have enough money. Keeping alive and minimally solvent on a minimum wage job takes exceptional effort and it is so difficult to explain to children why they can't have any of those things they see on TV.
 

Business interests always oppose a minimum wage law and then bemoan the difficulty in getting well trained or educated workers. But they are creating that problem for themselves by not paying parents enough to be parents. And they are very short-sighted to boot. Every dollar in increased wages will be spent. The multiplier effect will result in no net job losses. Notice that they always make this argument, but never cite the experience when the last increase took place. There is no doubt that the gap between poor and middle class, to say nothing of the rich, is now more a chasm than a gap.The best way to lessen the size of the chasm is to push up the starting point. You can argue all you want about leaving no child behind, but if you leave their parents behind, the child will not be able to catch up.

Jack Gordon has positively impacted health care, education, civil rights, and nearly every social issue this country has faced in the past four decades. As a Florida State Senator, he sponsored constitutional amendments ensuring the Right to Privacy and Homestead Exemption, sponsored an initiative for bilingual education in 1973, and introduced the Equal Rights Amendment in 1979. In addition, he pushed for a state lottery to help finance education (1987), shepherded the "Gordon Rule" to raise the level of writing for college students, and sponsored the Civil Rights Act of 1992, an anti discrimination law targeting country clubs.

For a more complete biography on Jack Gordon, please visit Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship Studies at Florida International University