Do bad schools cause bankruptcy?

Megan McArdle at janegalt.net has a very good piece on the debate about the bankruptcy reform bill currently before Congress. I highly recommend the whole thing, but want to focus particularly on one claim made by left-winger Josh Marshall and his allies about our schools:

The story of bankruptcy today is the story of modern America. As tough as it is for many to accept, Americans are not in a frenzy of overconsumption. The research of Professor Warren and others has revealed that we actually spend less on non-necessities, thanks to falling prices for clothing, restaurant dining, and other purchases. Americans today have less disposable income than they had a generation ago, as more of our income is spent on housing, health care, and transportation.

Americans spend more money on their homes than a generation ago because house-shopping for families is as much about the school district as it is about the home itself. Our failure to provide equal access to quality schools has produced a bidding war between middle class families for homes in good school districts, which in turn results in working families buying more expensive houses than their incomes would have allowed a generation ago. In turn, as families move away from cities in search for better school districts, they end up spending more on their car and gasoline.

They also blame rising health care costs as well.

Megan later notes that much of the "research" Warren relies on is garbage, but she has no love for the credit card companies, either. Neither do I, so I don't have a position on the bankruptcy proposal.

By the way did you notice how, to these liberals, everyone (not just the bankrupt) is a victim of the system. And the schools in the city are bad because of "our" failure to provide sufficient quality. Marshall uses "our" to mean society as a whole, but he would be far more accurate if he meant his liberal friends.

In places like Washington DC, the school board spends over $15,000 per student per year. The problem isn't lack of funding. In Philadelphia, similar spending produces a system where only 1 out of 3 students actually graduates. And only 1 out of 3 of them can read at a level higher than functional illiteracy. (Note -- these numbers are from memory. When I get a chance, I'll try to google the study where I read them a couple years ago.)

All this leads to a topic which deserves its own post -- why liberals are so quick make (and to believe) the most horrible slanders about other people.