Education And Economic Inequality

Throughout decades, education inequality is still one of the most deliberate and controversial issues in the United States. Thus far, the privilege or right to receive education has not attained the level of equality throughout the nation. Poor districts obtain less educational funds while rich districts obtain more, which create an immense gap between the quality of schools in poor and rich areas. In other words, the education gap is the root of inequality in America. Inequality in education is linked to the major problems in the society. The need for studies to be done to find ways of overcoming these inequalities is very inevitable. The means of mitigating these inequalities are important for the entire world. This is something of great interest due to the fact that children need quality education which is a pillar for a guaranteed future. Generally speaking, the distinctions among races, genders, and classes in the society have caused the educational inequality in America.

Economic class has been one of the reasons behind inequality and discrimination in our society. Inequality is one of the main issues in America, in which people are not provided with equal opportunities. Income inequality is increasing rapidly between people, as the economic progress for lower and middle class is not improving. As a result of income inequality, social inequality is increasing within a society. The difference in payment levels does not only affect the family status, but it also reduces their chances of affording health insurance and providing better education for their children.

The United States is a country based on equal opportunity; every citizen is to be given the same chance as another to succeed. This includes the government providing the opportunity of equal education to all children. All children are provided schools to attend. However, the quality of one school compared to another is undoubtedly unfair. Former teacher John Kozol, when being transferred to a new school, said, "The shock from going from one of the poorest schools to one of the wealthiest cannot be overstated (Kozol 2)." The education gap between higher and lower-income schools is obvious: therefore, the United States is making the effort to provide an equal education with questionable results.

A gap in income leads to many socio- economic differences that are clearly visible all around us. Those who are financially well off enjoying a multitude of privileges that the underprivileged do not enjoy. Among some of the privileges are a better standard of living, better healthcare, better education as well as power and prestige. It is then obvious, why most people long to be in the higher income group. The established belief is that anyone with merit can climb the social ladder to a better standard of living. But the question we must ask is: is that possible for everyone? Is the ideology of equal opportunity for all, entirely true? The point is that lower

"How Economic Inequality Harms Societies." Richard Wilkinson:. TED Talks, July 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

Education plays a larger component in the lives of people all around the world since it gives them capital, such as human, cultural, and social capital. Furthermore, education provides populations with all sorts of skills that can improve their quality of life. However, there happen to also be inequalities of education and diverse minorities have a grueling time trying to adjust their future. Numerous studies have shown a strong correlation of socioeconomic status and education, including how difficult it is to improve one's quality of life when coming from a low socioeconomic status.

It is thought that the “American Dream” can be obtained solely by hard work and determination. However, when we take a closer look at the effects of the underlying factor of social stratification, we can begin to see the difficulty that arises in attempting to make strides towards success and prosperity. Social stratification is the way in which society categorizes individuals into different socioeconomic classes (Manza et al. 2015). America is one of the richest countries in the world, yet there is so much inequality observed amongst its citizens. How can this be?

In the year 2020, Kevin Hanley works as a janitor. By 2050, his son is a beggar on the street. How did this happen to Kevin Hanley’s son? This story was just a fictional one, titled “The Fable of the Lazy Teenager” by Ben Stein. It is about the decline of America through the degradation of the American educational system. If the educational system fails, than we will become no better than our ancestors in that we will have no education, and therefore people would be back to the starting block positions of hard manual labor. However, according to James Loewen’s “The Land of Opportunity,” even the educational system is slipping, stating that when he asked questions like, “why are people poor?” he got woefully inadequate responses. In both

Research indicates that high inequality reverberates through societies on multiple levels, correlating with, if not causing, more crime, poorer mental and physical health (Williams, R., 2011). This can be attributed to the large income gap that the U.S has currently.

No society will ever be equal. Questions surrounding inequality in modern times are not just “Is there inequality?” but instead ask deeper questions like “How much inequality is there?” and “Where are inequalities most prevalent?” We as a society tend to be uncomfortable with the notion that ascribed characteristics such as race help determine our life chances. One of the most curious developments which as occurred over the recent years is how our social institutions have become more open to those who they previously excluded, yet at the same time inequality has increased (Kahn 2011, p. 122).

J.D Gregorio and J. Lee published “Education and Income Inequality: New Evidence from Cross-Country Data” in the early 2000s (Gregorio & Lee, 2002). This paper looks at empirical evidence on how educational factors, like higher educational attainment and equal distribution of education, play a significant role in income distribution. The authors Gregorio and Lee state that many other literature pieces emphasize education as one of the major factors affecting the degree of income inequality (Gregorio & Lee, 2002). Gregorio and Lee hypothesize that educational attainment level is important in making income distribution more equal (Gregorio and Lee, 2002). Similarly, the authors Jorn Rattsø and Hildegunn Stokke published “Regional Convergence of Income and Education: Investigation of Distribution Dynamics” (Rattsø & Stokke, 2014). This study looks to challenge the suggested relationship between income inequality and education. This was done with data from Norway in comparison to recent United States studies. Education levels are equalised across the two counties used in the dataset. The authors Rattsø and Stokke hypothesize that there is a relationship between the convergence of income distribution and educational level of attainment (Rattsø & Stokke, 2012).

With the development of economic society in contemporary China, there is an increasingly high demand for high-quality talents and people begin to pay more and more attention to the educational development. The inequality of educational development aggravates the cut-throat competition in the allocation of high-quality educational resources and even evolves into the inequitable “inside story”, which intensifies the issue of educational equality and leads to a radical social response. This paper mainly studies the issue of educational inequality in China’s contemporary society and briefly analyzes three phenomena and relevant reasons of the educational inequality. Meanwhile, this paper also discusses the relationship between education and economic development in a brief way.

Society holds many structures that mould human performance and produce opportunities for some, but inequalities for others (Morrall, 2009). These structures in society are organized by the hierarchies of class, ethnicity and gender (Crossman, 2016). Due to having a society based on hierarchies, social inequalities are inevitable. Social inequality refers to the ways in which a group or individual of a certain social position may receive unequal opportunities or distribution of ‘goods’ such as education, income, living conditions and healthcare (Walker, 2009). These unequal opportunities may be given to someone because of their ethnicity, gender, income, religion or social class (Walker, 2009). For example, people in a high social class will be able to pay for their children to go to a good private school for a good education, whereas lower-class or working class people will struggle to afford the same education.

In the United States, people like to believe and are often told from a very young age that everyone has an equal chance at success and wealth. While this statement can sometimes be the case, often times it is not. Sociologists generally agree that there are two main forces behind

The schools that cater to lower class students don’t rise to the standards that other schools are held to. Many of the schools in poorer neighborhoods have fewer resources, less standards and the parents have less education and are not able to help their children or even afford for their children to go to school. This is a big problem for children of lower socioeconomic statues, especially those that are African American.The School-centered explanation helps show that there is inequality between schools in different socioeconomic statuses. It talks about how the teachers and things that happen in school play a big part in the education of children and also the expectations of the students. The schooling suffers because of the lack of money and motivation which can cause the students to have a worse schooling than kids in higher socioeconomic statuses. The expectations of teachers is related to Labeling Theory. When the students are told that they are bad kids or that they are not smart, it causes them to act like the labels that are given to them. If a child believes these labels, it hinders their performance in school and the attitude they have towards learning. Lastly, there is also student-centered explanations. These have to do with the people and things that surround the students outside of school, like their parents, friends, and the places they live. All of these cause different school experiences for children of different classes and is a big part of how well the