The Effect Of Income Inequality On Education
The United States is known around the world as the land of opportunity and where anyone can make it with hard work and dedication. Sadly, this perception of the United States is a belief, not reality. The culture in the United States loves the underdog, a person who defies all odds and becomes successful. This obsession with the underdog illuminates through all parts of the American culture. From presidential candidate, like Donald Trump who tries to position himself as an underdog, to business owners, emphasize their humble beginnings and their achievements to reach the top with hard work. The land of opportunity is now only giving opportunity to the wealthy. The increasing income disparity is causing an educational inequality in the future generations resulting in an ongoing cycle that increase the advantages of the wealthy.
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The income gap is widening effectively making it hard to get to the top if one starts on the bottom because now the distance between the bottom and the top is increased.
Barrack Obama gave a speech on income inequality and stated “The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe.” Greg J. Duncan is a distinguished professor at University of California, Irvine and who wrote a paper discussing the income inequality and its effect on education. He found that since 1970s the gap between reading and mathematics skills has increased dramatically in low and high income families (Duncan 2014). A student who comes from a high income family increases one’s SAT score by 125 points compared 75 points for a student coming white family. Family income has more to do with one’s academic success than one’s racial
backgrounds. There are a number of implications from this disparity among the low and high income students. The most pronounced discrepancy amongst students in college is low and high income not racial or ethnic differences. From 1975 to 1996, college graduation in high income students increased 18 % from 36% to 54% compared to their low income counterparts whose graduation rate increased 4% from 5% to 9% in the same time (Bozick and Lauff 2007). This is a result of the high income families being able to provide more resources to the student like computers, private schools, tutors, and etc. Low income children far more limited in this aspect compared to the high income children. The greater graduation rates of high income student is a manifestation of many factors. One that automatically comes to the public’s eyes is academic preparation. Engberg’s study extensively examines academic preparation as a key factor to graduating college. The study found that high income students are much more likely to be academically prepared for college (Engberg 2011). Academic preparation remains a daunting access barrier for low income students. Engberg suggests that improving students’ academic performance is the most prominent equalizer to expand higher education opportunity. Another factor that seem to have a significant role in inequality is intergenerational wealth transmission. Strand studied the effects of intergenerational wealth transmission which is the form of parents investing in their children’s human capital by paying for their education (Strand 2015). This allows for huge discrepancies amongst students. The United States has traditionally combated this with public education but as more students need college degrees to get good jobs, the high income families are able to make leaps and bounds both in education and income while the low income families are losing their footing. There’s a repeating theme that one notices, the current system is stacking the odds in the favor of the high income families. This theme repeats in Rodrigues’ study, the current economic system increases the earning opportunities and earning potential of the rich, rather than the entire population. Higher education is the most affected by inequality and is the first place that inequality is noticed. The study also found positive correlation between educational inequality and income inequality. The research also suggests that the best way to combat this inequality is to improve access to higher education. Income disparity is closely linked with the educational inequality. The results of all the studies highlight the importance of college and universities in destroying the continuous cycle of inequality in the American educational system. There is a dividing line in our country around the educational opportunity that is destroying the very foundation that the United States was founded on. The American dream is becoming harder and harder to achieve and the land of opportunity is becoming the land of false promises. Today’s children are tomorrow’s adults, and leaving their education to an unfair system is wrong. The country must unite together and promise the future generations the opportunity of education through reform in our schools and liberating education from income. This is a threat to the American dream and must be dealt with before that American dream is impossible to make reality.
The income gap is widening effectively making it hard to get to the top if one starts on the bottom because now the distance between the bottom and the top is increased.
Barrack Obama gave a speech on income inequality and stated “The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe.” Greg J. Duncan is a distinguished professor at University of California, Irvine and who wrote a paper discussing the income inequality and its effect on education. He found that since 1970s the gap between reading and mathematics skills has increased dramatically in low and high income families (Duncan 2014). A student who comes from a high income family increases one’s SAT score by 125 points compared 75 points for a student coming white family. Family income has more to do with one’s academic success than one’s racial
backgrounds. There are a number of implications from this disparity among the low and high income students. The most pronounced discrepancy amongst students in college is low and high income not racial or ethnic differences. From 1975 to 1996, college graduation in high income students increased 18 % from 36% to 54% compared to their low income counterparts whose graduation rate increased 4% from 5% to 9% in the same time (Bozick and Lauff 2007). This is a result of the high income families being able to provide more resources to the student like computers, private schools, tutors, and etc. Low income children far more limited in this aspect compared to the high income children. The greater graduation rates of high income student is a manifestation of many factors. One that automatically comes to the public’s eyes is academic preparation. Engberg’s study extensively examines academic preparation as a key factor to graduating college. The study found that high income students are much more likely to be academically prepared for college (Engberg 2011). Academic preparation remains a daunting access barrier for low income students. Engberg suggests that improving students’ academic performance is the most prominent equalizer to expand higher education opportunity. Another factor that seem to have a significant role in inequality is intergenerational wealth transmission. Strand studied the effects of intergenerational wealth transmission which is the form of parents investing in their children’s human capital by paying for their education (Strand 2015). This allows for huge discrepancies amongst students. The United States has traditionally combated this with public education but as more students need college degrees to get good jobs, the high income families are able to make leaps and bounds both in education and income while the low income families are losing their footing. There’s a repeating theme that one notices, the current system is stacking the odds in the favor of the high income families. This theme repeats in Rodrigues’ study, the current economic system increases the earning opportunities and earning potential of the rich, rather than the entire population. Higher education is the most affected by inequality and is the first place that inequality is noticed. The study also found positive correlation between educational inequality and income inequality. The research also suggests that the best way to combat this inequality is to improve access to higher education. Income disparity is closely linked with the educational inequality. The results of all the studies highlight the importance of college and universities in destroying the continuous cycle of inequality in the American educational system. There is a dividing line in our country around the educational opportunity that is destroying the very foundation that the United States was founded on. The American dream is becoming harder and harder to achieve and the land of opportunity is becoming the land of false promises. Today’s children are tomorrow’s adults, and leaving their education to an unfair system is wrong. The country must unite together and promise the future generations the opportunity of education through reform in our schools and liberating education from income. This is a threat to the American dream and must be dealt with before that American dream is impossible to make reality.