Is Education a Reward for Wealth?
According to a new study, education may just be a privilage for the wealthy. On November 24, 2006, the Washington Post ran an editorial entitled, "Reforms are needed to make college accessible and affordable for all." The first paragraph reads, "Guess which high school graduate is more likely to go to college: the ill-prepared student who is financially well-off or a high-achieving student from a low-income family? According to a new study, they have pretty much the same chance -- and that is an embarrassment to the American educational system."
The article goes on to explain that although there has been a lot of rhetoric about reducing the size of the achievement gaps in the U.S., the reality is that achievement in school and levels of school attained are closely linked with income and class.
When a friend of mine told me about this article, she explained it in terms of democracy. She said that when you look around the world, it is easy to see that democracies thrive in places where there is a large and financially healthy middle class. As the middle class breaks down, democracy breaks down and other systems grow such as communism, socialism or totalitarianism. The United States has always been proud of its large, comfortable middle class. However, now, with the breakdown of our public education system, the middle class is in jeopardy. The spread between the rich and poor is growing exponentially.
Public education should be the force that perpetuates the middle class and allows people to advance based on hard work and merit. This is the foundation for the American Dream. As quality and length of education become tied more and more to wealth, however, the spread between classes will increase, and the strength of our democracy will decrease. We need to think carefully about the role of public education in our society, and quickly intervene to make sure that it is accomplishing its purpose for all students, and not just those with wealth.