The parent said lobbying, not paying for it themselves. I do believe it's a government's job to provide and support equal opportunity when it comes to educations though; that is, allow anyone, regardless of background or wealth or whatever, to attend a school matching their intelligence and ambitions.

As it stands, US education is all over the place, and worse, it's more and more only becoming available to the elite; social mobility is low, that is, if you're born poor chances are you'll end up poor yourself.

This is unlike where I came from, where my dad was a low paid metalworker but I got an effectively free college education and repaid that government funding multiple times over in income taxes in just a few years, whilst simultaneously bringing a lot more money home than my parents did (to oppose any "but income taxes screw with my income" claims).

Anyway, since the government isn't doing it, I do think it's up to the big companies to offer it. That's what the US is all about, isn't it? Changing it to a capitalist government, where it's big companies that rule the people, not the government.

Your experience is exactly why investing in education by the Government is a good idea. Education is a super-long term investment, whose returns can only be reaped over a long period of time, via taxation. And that is only viewing it from a purely investment perspective; the gains to society by skilled and educated workforce is priceless.

It is for this reason that I don't think private companies can significantly change that, even in the US. Even the most innovative/successful companies don't last that long in the US to make a significant change in the Education system.

> Because that's not Google's job, that's the job of the local, State and Federal Government of the United States.

And to an even larger extent it's up to the citizens of the U.S. Most don't care enough to support/reward such efforts at the ballot booth, so the politicians aren't motivated, and things don't get done.

The government's job is to lobby itself into spending more money on public education?

The government's job should be to not be swayed by lobbyists, do their own analysis and make policies that best serve the country long term.

I prefer to deal with the world as it is, rather than as I wish it to be. The US government has never worked the way you describe.

Unfortunately, when it comes to legislation and budget considerations (including education), lobbying works.