An integral
part of the American Dream is under threat - as "downward mobility" seems to be
threatening the education system in the United States.
The idea of
going to college - and the expectation that the next generation will be better
educated and more prosperous than its predecessor - has been hardwired into the
ambitions of the middle classes in the United States.
But there are
deep-seated worries about whether this upward mobility is going into
reverse.
Andreas
Schleicher, special adviser on education at the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD), says the U.S. is now the only major economy
in the world where the younger generation is not going to be better educated
than the older.
"It's something
of great significance because much of today's economic power of the United
States rests on a very high degree of adult skills - and that is now at risk,"
says Mr Schleicher.
"These skills
are the engine of the US economy and the engine is stuttering," says Mr
Schleicher, one of the world's most influential experts on international
education comparisons.
Lack of
opportunity
The annual OECD education statistics show that only about one in five young adults in the U.S. reaches a higher level of education than their parents - among the lowest rates of upward mobility in the developed world.
For a country
whose self-image is based on optimism and opportunity, the U.S. is now a country
where someone with poorly-educated parents is less likely to reach university
than in almost any other industrial country.
And about one in
five young adults in the U.S. are now defined in educational terms as
"downwardly mobile" - such as children who have graduate parents but who don't
reach university level themselves.
When the global
story of higher education is so much about rapid expansion and the race to
increase graduates, it's almost counter-intuitive to find a powerhouse such as
the United States on the brink of going backwards. BBC
Income
inequality in U.S. is on the rise. A new study by
the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities details the explosive growth in
income inequality throughout the United States over the past three decades.
wsws.org The report,
entitled Pulling Apart, is unique in that it breaks down data regarding
inequality to the state level, demonstrating that “the growth in income
inequality since the late 1970s has not been a geographically isolated
phenomenon.” wsws.org “Nationwide,
income gaps between the richest households and both the poorest households and
middle-income households have widened significantly since the late 1970s,” the
study’s authors conclude. wsws.org Middle-class
Americans have seen their income and wealth drop over the past decade, their
share of the population shrink, and have shed some "but by no means all" of
their faith in the future, according to findings by the Pew Research Center in
August. Newsday According to Pew
Research, a full 32 percent of Americans now identify themselves as being lower
class, up from 25 percent in 2008. Forbes
AHT/HJ
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