Education Inequality in America and Social Stratification

Introduction

Social stratification happens everywhere and in every aspect of life. Sometimes we just do not notice its presence, including the presence of social stratification in the American educational system. According to the article Inequality is Holding Economies Back. Education Could Be One of Them, the American education is described as not equally accessible for students coming from different classes. Students whose parents are wealthy have greater opportunities in obtaining a better degree and career compared to low-income students who suffer from education inequality.

Education Inequality and the American Dream

Even though the ideal culture in the U.S. is that anyone deserves an equal chance to move up the social class ladder, Americans experience unequal access to the education system. According to a survey from the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, approximately 90 percent of high-come high school graduates enroll in college while only 60 percent of students in low-come households enroll in college. Consequently, the American Dream might be dead due to education inequality.

The article illustrates how American education is leaning towards inequality by contrasting the two students who grew up in two opposite backgrounds. Greenberg, who is now a music professor, was raised in a wealthy family. Growing up, he had lots of options in choosing a private high school and college he wanted to go to. He chose Brown University and he had his tuition paid in full by his parents. He did not even think too much when he decided to major in music. He earned his two masters without debt. In contrast, Jackson was raised by a single mom in black neighborhood. He did not have any guidance to enroll in colleges and ended up attending a community college. While attending school, he also had a job in a restaurant and commuted one hour and a half to work every day. He then dropped out and had $2000 in debt. This contrary shows that students from low-income households are likely to struggle in achieving a higher education.

Analyzing Experiences of Education Inequality

So what causes the educational experiences of Jason and Greenberg are so different? Their education and success are strongly related with their family’s social stratification. In terms of sociological concepts, social stratification is caused by many factors and viewed differently under each sociological theory. In this essay, I will analyze four concepts to explain the existence of social stratification. They are ideology, structural functionalism, power, and prestige.

First of all, the working class’s social ideology results their perception of what is fair and not. Even though working class like Jason’s mom has an unpleasant working condition, she is likely to believe her social status is fair. The fact that her son and she are living in a black neighborhood is fair for her. People above her deserves the wealth. This thought causes her easily accept her social status and suppresses her hope and effort to work harder to move up. As a result, the social stratification become even more significant.

Next, based on the structural functionalism, we have social stratification because it is functional for the society. People who do important and difficult jobs will get better rewards. Without the greater rewards, no one would want to invest their time and effort in education. Getting unequal pay based on the characteristics of jobs promotes social stratification. In the article, Greenberg’s dad is a physician meaning he makes a lot of money compared to Jason’s mom. Since Greenberg is a Brown’s alumni, the door is more open for his children to go to Brown compared to Jason’s children. This cycle is repeated itself and that’s why social stratification still exists.

Thirdly, power is closely related to social stratification. Being power and wealthy have a positive correlation. It can be illustrated by the domination of wealthy white males in politics. For those who are wealthy but are not working for the government, they can influence politics figures to protect their interests. Because wealth is distributed unequally, power is therefore not equally distributed either. Would Jason’s mom or Greenberg’s dad be more involved in politics? The clear answer is the dad since he has the demand to maintain his wealth. In contrast, Jason’s mom is less likely involve in politics since she perceives herself to be powerless. Furthermore, the power is passed from generation to generation due to their hereditary, Greenberg can have the power his dad passes on for him. Therefore, Jason and Jason’s children have the disadvantages in moving up.

Social Stratification as a Privilege

Another concept that is important to understand social stratification is prestige. Education and income levels seem to have a huge influence on the ranking of professions. For example, doctors and lawyers have a high ranking due to their education level and the money that make. The prestige concept is not merely just about occupation. People who have the same occupation may not be considered equally prestige because of their race, gender, and age. Even if Jason’s mom was a physician, it would still be harder for her to gain prestige since she was African-American female. So now, when Jason’s mom was a physician, he could go through the Brown admission’s process. Assuming they had the same SAT scores and extracurricular activities, would Jason and Greenberg have the same chance to be accepted? The answer is probably not.

Even though the article illustrated clearly the real-life example of social stratification, I think the article is a little biased. It contrasted the two opposite classes with two “typical opposite backgrounds”. The media presentation so often mentions about inequality usually brings up the two races: African American and Caucasian. I was not really surprised when I read the article since the contradiction present in the article is so common. That being said, I felt there was a confirmed bias in the article since the author had an assumption that inequality happens between in these two races (even though it may not be true and too narrow). She mostly gathered evidence to prove her assumption.

Conclusion

There are invisible barriers to climb up in the social class ladder. Even though education can help people to move up and improve their life, it is really hard since the American education system itself is unfair. Most likely, parents social class is a good predictor for where their children will end up.

References

Smialek, Jeanna. “Inequality Is Holding Economies Back. Education Could Be One Solution.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 20 Mar. 2019, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-20/if-america-can-t-fix-education-it-won-t-beat-inequality.