Education and Income Inequality in the United States Paul Attewell Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center

The US Context High Income & Wealth Inequality. Residential segregation by race and class/income. Local funding of K-12 schools by local real estate taxes. A recipe for generating educational inequality?

But three divergent views: 1.Education is basically neutral with regards to income inequality: it transmits pre-existing inequality with great fidelity. Large class-based skill gaps at entry to K are translated into large skill gaps at 8 th grade. Individuals move up and down some but on average class gaps at school entry closely mirror those at higher grades. Implication: focus on reducing gaps at entry through pre-K and very early years.

2. Schools themselves generate inequality Skill gaps at entry are magnified, as kids learn at different speeds. ‘Slow kids’ get labeled (and later tracked), lose self confidence, disengage academically, and some act out. Misbehavior is punished and results in more labeling and control, especially widespread in low income schools. Student resistance or disengagement further frustrates teachers. More time spent on classroom management and discipline leads to less time on instruction. Over time many teachers in poor schools leave for the suburbs, leave teaching, or lower their expectations & standards. Implication: school reform???

3. Schools as the Great Equalizer Schools as countervailing force to existing inequality. Struggle to offer safe opportunities to learn. Poor kids learn just as fast as affluent kids during school year. But ‘summer fallback’ undercuts school year gains. Each year performance gaps increase due to fallback. Sisyphus. High residential mobility among poorer kids, and lower attendance and health problems compound summer fallback.

Higher Education and Income Inequality Massive growth in enrollments over last half century. Institutional Differentiation (2 v. 4 year, public v. private, selective v. unselective) strongly associated with student class background. Differential college experience: full time residential v. commuting students with jobs. Large numbers of students do not complete their degrees or cycle in and out of college. Longer time to degree for poorer students. Privileged students go on to masters and higher credentials. Recent increases in debt even for public college students.

If you succeed in education, can you escape low class origins? Hout (1988): “This finding provides a new answer to the old question about overcoming disadvantaged origins: A college degree can do it.” Torche (2011): “… a college degree fulfills the promise of meritocracy – it offers equal opportunity for economic success, regardless of the advantages of origins.”

We find the opposite: BA graduates from lowest quintile families earn 20% less per year, ten years after graduation, than BA graduates from top quintile families. After controlling for: SAT scores at college entry, and GPA at college graduation, and selectivity of college attended, and college major, plus race and gender. Class reproduction remains strong even among college graduates.