Although the growth of income inequality has received lots of public attention in recent years, public policy should focus instead on expanding economic opportunity. Of the numerous advantages of concentrating on opportunity, two stand out. One is public support. Americans are less concerned about inequality than economic opportunity. The popular reading of the American Dream is not that America guarantees success to all, but that America tries to ensure equal opportunity so that hard work and initiative pay off. The second advantage is that new legislation will be more likely to win support if it is framed in a way that is popular with both political parties. In our new book, Creating an Opportunity Society, we lay out an agenda of policies aimed at improving education, encouraging work, and strengthening families. We argue that this opportunity-enhancing agenda is one that most people, regardless of political affiliation, can endorse.
Some might think that America already presents people with lots of opportunity to get ahead. But it turns out that you need to pick your parents well. True, there is considerable mobility from one generation to the next, but the American economy tends to help those at the top stay there while making it difficult for those at the bottom to move up. Kids from families in the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution are nearly five times as likely to wind up in the bottom 20 percent as kids from families in the top 20 percent. Similarly, children from other advanced countries are less likely to be stuck at the bottom of the income distribution than children in the U.S.
There is almost universal agreement that education is the key to economic success. Most people know that the family income of those who drop out of school falls far below the family income of those who complete college. Less well known is the fact that the income of those with less than a college degree has not increased for three decades or more. Promoting education is promoting opportunity.
Our research shows that children whose parents were in the bottom 20 percent of earners tripled their odds of earning $85,000 or more per year by obtaining a four-year college degree. Yet kids from poor families are both less likely to enroll in and graduate from college as compared with kids from families with more income.
What can we do to help more disadvantaged children get into college? The most important goal should be to improve their readiness for college coursework by improving their mastery of reading and math skills during the K-12 years. Because research shows that disadvantaged children fall behind in their intellectual development by age three, the focus on learning should begin in the preschool years. The results of a recent scientific evaluation of Head Start raise considerable doubt about whether it boosts school readiness. But the record of preschool programs funded and run by states seems much better than Head Start. Given their success, states should be given a bigger role in using Head Start funds.
The nation has devoted great attention and funding over recent decades to improving K-12 education. The Obama administration is now proposing to amend the No Child Left Behind law, in part by broadening and strengthening its accountability system. The national standards in English and math recently recommended by governors and school superintendents are also a step in right direction. To help students meet these standards we need better teachers along with more orderly classrooms, goals that some charter schools have begun to achieve. The emphasis on accountability, higher standards, and better teachers has put us on the right track to increased school achievement and preparation for post-secondary education.
The process of preparing for and applying for college is too complex. In 2009, about $170 billion in government and private funds were available to help students pay for college, with a considerable share - though not enough - of the money available to students from low-income and minority families. To inform parents while their children are still young that financial aid will be available when their children reach college age, the IRS, based on tax return data, should send annual letters to low-income parents informing them about the amount of money for which their children could qualify to help with college costs, In this way, both parents and children can begin early to prepare for college attendance. Schools should counsel students beginning in middle school about the courses they need to prepare for college and to help them select an appropriate school and apply for financial aid. The 127-question federal form students must complete to apply for financial aid is far too long and confusing. Research shows that applications by low-income youngsters increase when the burden of figuring out the complex application procedure is lifted. The form should be sliced to no more than one page
The strength of these proposals is that nearly all of them are backed by strong research showing that they can individually have positive impacts on the education of disadvantaged kids. Taken together, they can be expected to move the nation closer toward fulfilling our commitment to providing a level playing field for all and substantially increasing opportunity in America.
a bachelors in accounting is not the same as a bachelors in english or comparative literature.
a career in medicine is not going to pay the same amount as a career in journalism.
its high time parents and schools started teaching this basic thing to students rather than "discover yourself."..pffft
This is egalitarianism tripe. No, we will not all achieve the corner office with the window and leather chair. No, we will not all earn more money than we know what to do with.
But some of us can, and will. That is the 'American Dream'. Not a guarantee, but the freedom to work and strive to achive what you aim at. You may not make it, but nothing stands in your way (officially) to prohibit that effort.
Children whose parents only completed high school, or who dropped out, show decreased knowledge when they return to school after summer vacation.
Perhaps we need some sort of summer refresher course for low income students to help them keep up with their advantaged peers?
Here are two older white people proposing their considerations about what focus is needed to help the poor achieve a step up on the ladder to success. They start out with a premise of the inequality of the top and bottom 20%, run into "Head Start" head-on, fuel illogical intellect flaws, and follow up with renewing the merits of testing and counseling all youth for and about higher education.
Stop for a moment to digest whether you agree with my summary?
Now, will you consider the more nuanced disadvantages of the poor in America, and add the near poor, the lower middle class and the struggling middle class?
I don't have credentials to flaunt to sway your thoughts, but I ask that you look further than these two to examine this issue. What these two could have started with is how 30 years of funding neglect, coupled with nitpick testing takes away direct education funds and has left our graduation rates and youth in dire straights. American youth are not world competitive by a long shot. This is the consequence of agreeing wholly with these two older white people. (btw I'm not a very young white man myself),
This is a nuanced problem and there may be some of what I'm posting written in their book. However, I'm disinclined to care based upon their less than nuanced article.
First of all, the are vastly more self made millionaires per capita here than comparing per capita rates to highly unionized Western Europe. So your entire assertion is baseless.
Secondly, if joining a union lead to financial paradise, wouldn't union membership be at an all time high, rather than an all time low?
It's entirely possible to grow up poor here and do well. Millions of people like me do it every year.
"It's entirely possible to grow up poor here and do well. Millions of people like me do it every year."
Hey hippie chucker -- THAT'S 100% BULLS**T! There is really no such thing as a "self-made millionaire or billionaire" today. Folks like YOU need to remember this: ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY NO ONE makes it to the top in America today without a BIG HELPING HAND from Uncle Sam -- this includes loans, contracts, tax write-offs, property condemnation, and corporate welfare. You're sounding an awful lot like a typical "I've got mine thanks to Uncle Sam, to hell with you, go f**k yourself" rightwinger. May I suggest you visit this website:
http://www.theyrule.net
Remember: like the authors said in the second paragraph, IT'S NOT WHAT YOU KNOW THAT GETS YOU TO THE TOP IN AMERICA TODAY -- IT'S WHO YOU KNOW!
It is only reasonable to ask and assess the personal / political beliefs, learned at college level, that allowed these elites to operate in government, finance, and business; their operations created the destruction of a super power, it requires investigation.
If economy formation measures are not implemented immediately, the U.S. economy will stop functioning. Market forces will demand an expansion of chronic unemployment, homelessness, hunger, foreclosures and bankruptcies.
Suppose every American got a college degree; what difference would it make?
It would not change the job mix. The majority of jobs do not need any advanced education.
This is a just a "blame the victim" ploy: you're unemployed because you're not educated enough.
Americans are better educated than the population of any other nation.
Our workers are the most productive in the world.
Our executives are the most overpaid, spoiled and incompetent.
Rich investors take a higher proportion of our GDP than any other country.
And the problem is, we're not educated enough?
The authors of this blog use a logical fallacy to give the illusion of an argument. They appeal to "everyone knows" and this "proves" that education improves the economy.
Our economy needs entry level jobs first. Otherwise the 60% of american homes hit by underemployment won't be able to afford college for their family.
If you can't tell, I don't like this blog.
If you don't like the blog, don't read it, and for goodness sake, don't post to it!
When these kinds of jobs are being filled now, it seems that companies go out of their ways to make sure that you cannot survive on the wages that are being paid unless you are willing to live like an illegal worker; sharing a small apartment with several people.
It seems that the only type of capital that counts in America is the financial type.
Human capital is greatly discounted and seems to matter little, if all, in the calculation of overall societal welfare.
All the entry level jobs in the world will matter for little if you cannot pay for basics like food and housing.
Splendid post.
Europe's educational systems are designed around a series of tests imposed upon their young people over the period of their educational careers. The result is that aptitudes are identified and the youngsters are steered toward what best suits them. That career might be in the trades; or, eventually there are the ones at the end of the process that have proven they should be afforded the privilege of university studies. Either result provides for a decent living and all the things Europeans have come to associate with that. And so? I know many French entrepreneurs that have succeeded splendidly without the university degrees bestowed on their "betters". Success is a magical formula - it rarely conforms to political dogma - right or left. Success is a precious achievement and I've left the company of the two people who took that blessing and ground it into to dirt because they were sure that they'd been otherwise cheated. Some people cannot be made happy - no matter how grand their prospects.
1) Go to college or,
2) There is no 2nd path
As a result, our educational system is a reflection of the ruling elite. If you don't go to college then you become "Labor" which is vilified in this great land of ours. A place where "hard work" used to be admired and respected.
Europeans still retain the common-sense practice of steering young people into careers AND vocations. Our American "exceptionalism" will be our ultimate downfall.
Without tax and policy changes that reverse this trend, all the good intentions and education are meaningless. We will accomplish little more than to create a class of well educated servants for the wealthy.
We need a 2 track system that identifies and prepares kids who would be better served by attending a vocational school
Not all college degrees are equally economically beneficial. In addition, WHAT people study is as important as the fact that they study. Supply and demand, is also at issue, with regards to the type of degrees which influence a "higher" income.
While, correlation of education to higher incomes is often noted, what is often left out of the analysis is the TYPE of degrees which earn a higher income. For example, while studying philosophy, art and English, are indeed noble pursuits, those degrees DO NOT translate well into high income careers. Whereas, physicians, lawyers, engineers, and MBA's DO tend to translate to high income professions.
In addition, networking and meeting the "right" people, is less open to those within the lower economic strata, even WITH the right economic credentials.
Sadly, our society is "class" based, whether WE like to admit it or not. Consequently in an effort to obtain more opportunity and better income equality, we need to address some of the REAL reasons for this disparity, honestly and without pretending some of the reasons for these problems don't exist.
Unsustainable usury and speculation in every sector of the economy, off-shoring industry, outsourcing jobs, free-trade, Globalization have produced hunger, homelessness, foreclosures, bankruptcies, and chronic unemployment with no signs of abatement. A nation in ruin with a political and financial leadership that can not find their duty in the order and organization of the nation.
Healthcare is supposed to part to the population's infrastructure as in the FDR era; instead it's used to bailout / enrich the insurance industry.
The curriculum and access has to change or we will never recover, we will lose it all.
Bonus points for mentioning simplified forms, charter schools, and ways to reach out to poor children and families.