Schooling is too weak an influence to equalize economic opportunity
Evidence
The record of actual successes and failures of education as reform is not sufficient either to accept or to reject the liberal outlook. But it must be a point of departure in any serious inquiry into its potential contribution to social improvement. The record, as we have shown, is not encouraging. First, despite the concerted efforts of progressive educators of three gener ations, and despite the widespread assimilation of their vocabulary in the United States, schools, by and large, remain hostile to the individual’s needs for personal development. Second, the history of U.S. education provides little support for the view that schools have been vehicles for the equalization of economic status or opportunity. Nor are they today. The proliferation of special programs for the equalization of educational oppor tunity had precious little impact on the structure of U.S. education, and even less on the structure of income and opportunity in the U.S. economy. It is clear that education in the United States is simply too weak an influence on the distribution of economic status and opportunity to fulfill its promised mission as the Great Equalizer. Schooling remains a meager instrument in promoting full participation of racial minorities in the United States— indeed, even the expensive pilot projects in this direction seem to have failed rather spectacularly. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 565
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes the pattern from more recent education literature (e.g., the ‘Coleman Report’ consensus that schools don’t overcome family background) — connects to the broader conversation on schooling as a weak lever for equality. — connects to: Schooling replaced the frontier as capitalism’s safety valve for unequal opportunity — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 177; Educational expansion and reduced prejudice have not increased economic opportunity or mobility — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 845; Egalitarian schooling barely changes income distribution — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 194 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Egalitarian schooling barely changes income distribution
#corroborates(0.90) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 194 - Educational expansion and reduced prejudice have not increased economic opportunity or mobility
#corroborates(0.85) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 845 - Educational attainment alone cannot close or reverse the racial wealth gap
#exemplifies(0.80) — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 344