Education Inequality
How unequal access to quality education perpetuates economic inequality across generations.
Education as Sorting Machine
Education is simultaneously the most celebrated mechanism of social mobility and a powerful engine of inequality reproduction. Children born to wealthy, educated parents attend better schools, receive more cognitive stimulation, have access to tutoring and enrichment activities, and are more likely to attend elite universities. Children born to poor families attend underfunded schools, face food insecurity that impairs concentration, and often work to support their families rather than study.
In the United States, children from the top income quintile are roughly six times more likely to earn a bachelor's degree than children from the bottom quintile. At Ivy League universities, more students come from the top 1% of the income distribution than from the entire bottom 50%. Education systems that claim to reward merit effectively reward the advantages that come with wealth.
