Chapter 1189: Chapter 1187: Scores Determine Everything

Watching Catherine don her professional attire and gradually fall in love with her city councilor work, and blend in, Lynch left.

The work of a legislator is not so specific. Catherine won the election due to her advocacy of education reform, and her main area of work is education.

The current education system in Sabin City is not much different from elsewhere in the Federation, and without a local university, her work is relatively easy.

She just needs to mediate conflicts between students and schools, address the demands of schools, handle some issues herself, or directly pass them to the mayor.

If this profession is akin to anything, perhaps it’s like a deputy mayor.

Her job is to assist the mayor in resolving these more specialized tasks within the scope of her powers.

Actually, being a legislator is not easy, and the difficulty lies in the city councilor being a "loss-making" job.

City councilors have work time requirements and must work a certain number of days each year.

Due to the relatively low salary, many city councilors actually hold part-time roles.

These people have other respectable jobs, and most of Catherine’s "colleagues" are lawyers, teachers, business owners, as are those who lost the election.

For them, being a legislator is just an identity.

Sabin City’s urban area is not large, nor are there any particularly obvious social conflicts, so local city councilors are required to work no less than ninety days a year.

So how do you determine if someone is working?

It’s when people can find the legislator in the office; then it’s considered they are working.

Outside each legislator’s office, there’s a sign showing not only their names but also their working hours.

From which days to which days of the week, and from what time to what time.

Catherine has an advantage over others: she doesn’t have any other part-time job. She can even take a vacation after completing the first three months since the job doesn’t pay much anyway.

However, her staff officer advises against it, and so does Lynch.

Lynch suggests she work more, about four days a week, which would tally up to approximately two hundred days a year.

She lacks the wealth of experience compared to those emerging from political families, where young people often engage in such matters from childhood.

When they exhibit certain political talents, their parents or uncles and aunts would take them to various events.

Exposed to various political affairs from a young age, they then join the student council for early "internships," and once they truly enter the workforce, they immediately demonstrate the gap between them and ordinary people.

Sometimes, you have to admit that it makes sense that the powerful become more powerful, the rich more wealthy, and the poor poorer.

The offspring of politicians remain politicians, the children of capitalists remain capitalists, and the children of the exploited continue to be exploited.

Perhaps this is why the education reform proposal has gained substantial support; after all, for the middle and lower strata of society, the only relatively cheap and peaceful way to change their own situation is through learning.

Catherine needs more training, so she should work more.

She doesn’t need to worry about money, Lynch has plenty.

After returning to Bupen, Lynch was called upon by the President, who is quite concerned and anxious about education reform.

This is really quite normal.

He has been in office for a year and a half, with the first year spent reconciling the relations between various departments within the Federation Government, placing important personnel into key positions.

There were too many backstage interest transfers and transactions involved here; taking someone’s position requires compensating them accordingly.

Now that the overall framework of the Federation Government is basically established, he has to do something as well.

Time passes quickly; almost half of his term has passed since his election, and if he doesn’t take action now, people might consider him a President who merely deceives voters.

He usually smiles, but deep down, he’s anxious; he doesn’t want to become a joke—a President unable to secure a reelection despite being in such a favorable position.

Education reform then becomes the most suitable weapon for him to seek reelection; no matter how well he does, the public will support him because he genuinely takes action, regardless of effectiveness.

A familiar office, familiar bad-tasting coffee.

"I’ve ordered takeout!" The President smiled as he reassured Lynch.

Sometimes, those idle folks are genuinely idle. They constantly monitor the pantry, and when there is a new coffee machine or hand-ground coffee machine, they pounce and frantically attack the President and the President’s Mansion in the media.

Blaming the President for spending taxpayer money on enjoyment.

This has led to unusually thriving business at the coffee shops around the President’s Mansion, with many people needing to work inside daily, and once they finish their intensive work and sit down, they need a cup of coffee to reward themselves—they certainly don’t want it to taste like dog feces.

Ordering takeout becomes the fastest and best way without causing public uproar.

In fact, for many interns working at the President’s Mansion, part of their job involves ordering coffee and fetching it for everyone.

Lynch pushed the cup of coffee a bit deeper into the table, "No problem, I don’t really like coffee."

"That’s quite insincere!" the President commented, laughing, "Actually, neither do I."

After a brief pause, he began discussing the core of the conversation, as he didn’t have much time to beat around the bush with Lynch, talk shallowly, then have a meal, and finally delve deeper.

He is the President of the Federation—his work is busy, nearly devoid of private time.

"I’ve read the report from the York State Governor and Catherine’s report. I’m very interested in Fair University; can you tell me about it?"

The President is very gentle; he’s a senior gentleman. Not all elder gentlemen are gentle, and perhaps that’s why Mr. Truman likes him.

Gentle, not easily angered, easily persuaded; at least working for him won’t be affected by a bad mood.

Lynch nodded and simultaneously asked the President, "What do you think a fair university should have in terms of qualifications?"

As a strategy for conversation, the President began to think, for about ten seconds, "Admitting more people from the lower strata?"

From the President’s mouth, the term "lower strata" is neither new nor surprising because society is inevitably stratified. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

As long as there remains a form of unified governance, there will undoubtedly be layers surrounding the governing class. The citizens of the Federation don’t intend to eradicate class, and the people of lower strata won’t feel offended by it—they acknowledge they are lower and bottom tier.

Lynch shook his head, "Wrong, Mr. President, fairness requires a measurement, something that can provide benchmarks in certain areas."

"Schools are places for learning, and if something can offer a relatively fair measurement for everyone, it must be academic performance."

"Students who excel and those who don’t excel only need to be judged by their exam papers."

"A child from a capitalist family won’t score tens of points higher just because their family is wealthy."

"Similarly, a child from an ordinary family won’t score tens of points lower just because their father is an ordinary workshop worker."

"Whether from capitalist, affluent, or impoverished families, these students are equal in terms of scores."

The President seemed to understand something, nodding his head, "What about the interview and recommendation part? Will it affect this fairness?"

Lynch questioned again, "Why should we rely on interviews and recommendations? If a child can obtain a recommendation, like yours, or seek admission through interviews, I would recommend them to private schools."

"Attending Fair University is merely wasting their real talents, Mr. President. Everyone has different talents."

"Some are born with a knack for learning, some are born incredibly wealthy, and some are born standing on mountaintops."

"Let the right people do the right things, perhaps that’s fairness."

The President seemed enlightened, nodding in agreement with Lynch’s words, "You’re absolutely right. If they have that much ability, they can certainly attend Saint Harmony Academy; there’s no need to go to Fair University."

He took a deep breath, slightly puffing his chest, "However, if we set admission standards to only consider scores as criteria, wouldn’t it be too harsh?"

"As far as I’m aware, most high school curricula domestically are somewhat slow-paced, and if the score requirements are too high, many children might not be able to attend university."

This is actually a misguided perception of many people in this era; many believe attending college guarantees a good job, which is fundamentally wrong.

There are quite a few college graduates without a decent job, and there’s no inherent connection between attending college and securing a good job.

College only provides people with more high starting opportunities and is not necessarily a given.

"Mr. President, fairness does not mean equality for everyone; if everyone were equal, universities would lose their value."

"The students’ primary responsibility is learning, and if they can’t master learning, why should they attend university?"

"Compared to expensive tuition fees, I’d rather they save the money and invest it in improving their living conditions."

"The fairness we can provide is to give them relative fairness."

"To allow those willing to learn to continue learning."

"To keep those unwilling to learn outside of university."

"We all know that university is the cheapest way to change a family’s circumstances; yet regardless of how cheap it is, it’s ’priced (conditional)’!"