Monday, June 15, 2009

Education Directly Connected to Inequality

For anyone who likes academic-level economics, here is an interesting commentary on the connection between educational attainment and economic equality.

From the 1940s to 1970s, economic growth was shared among the classes ("A rising tide lifts all boats.") Since the mid-1970s, the majority of economic growth in the US has rewarded the top 20% of Americans ("The rich get richer.")

Economists Goldin and Katz attribute this difference almost entirely to educational attainment. For a while (post-WWII), there were many more people going to college, driving up supply of college-educated workers and closing the income gap between college and non-college. However, starting in the 1960s, that gap started to grow again. Historically, US children would have more education than their parents. That has become less true in the past 30 years. If we are to increase equality in this country, we need to make education a priority for ALL children.


2 comments:

Hope Torrents said...

phWe are in the midst of creating an afterschool program, which combines science and art. A program, already in existence, called APEX created by the Miami Science museum will be used along with another program, Visual Thinking Strategies, a curriculum, K-8, which uses art as a tool to skill-build. Because we are starting from ground zero any ideas or suggestions would be great.

-- said...

APEX is a great program, and the Miami Science Museum is a member of the Coalition for Science After School. I would welcome you to visit our website, sign up as a member, and send me an email if you have more questions.