"One Market Under God, and Heaven Help Us All"

[kelley]

At 07:23 PM 7/26/00 -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>And for what it's worth, educational access has probably improved a great 
>>deal for women of all classes & the working class of both sexes and all 
>>races since the mid-20th century.
>
>No "probably" about it - it has improved a great deal, especially on 
>gender and race. The black/white education gap has narrowed very 
>substantially, and there are now more women than men in college. Class - 
>using income as the imperfect proxy - is another story; according to Tom 
>Mortenson, who publishes the Iowa-based Post Secondary Education Access, 
>there's been little narrowing of the gap between the likelihoods of kids 
>from the top and bottom income quartiles going to college since 1970. In 
>1970, 28.2% of 18-24 year olds from the bottom income quartile were in 
>college, vs. 73.5% of those from the top; in 1997, the numbers were 33.6% 
>and 82.7%.
>
>Doug


and, of course, don't forget that credential inflation and what brint and 
karabel call the 'diverted dream' are in operation.

credential inflation means that it takes more to be properly credentialed 
for many jobs than it used to.  witness, as one example, what's going on 
among techies who, for a long time, didn't need formal credentials per se 
to get into some fairly decent jobs.  as the occupation professionalizes 
itself, however, it expands the formalized credential process which 
operates as a gatekeeper.

diverting dreams is the process whereby the big ten prestigious unis backed 
the expansion of state and community college systems in order to keep the 
working class out.  they had been increasingly banging on the gates of the 
ivory tower demanding an education --and not necessarily one that would 
secure them a job.  no, the evidence suggests that they were looking for a 
liberal arts, rather than technical, education.

the big prestigious schools backed expansion to divert people into 
vocational training to secure their proper socialization into the labor force.

so, the "class" story isn't surprising.

kelley

ps., on a related note, the general social survey registers the "lag" blip 
in the correlation between education in income during the 70s.  usually 
there is a positive correlation between education and income and it rises 
steadily, smoothly.  but there's a blip in the 70s when people got their 
foot in the "programming' door with a two year technical degree and made 
loads of money compared to colleagues who got degrees in social work, 
nursing, and criminal justice.