Starting in the early 1980s, after the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, the service and financial-sector industry grew. Because of the boom in speculations and finances, and a new modernization of technology, the goods market decreased. What did this mean for the working-class? This meant that there were less jobs to go around. Also, nowadays the blue-collar jobs that once provided for a family, are not considered to be “real” jobs and are handed to those who are willing to make an unlivable amount of money, a.k.a. minimum wage; in particular, employers target illegal immigrants and high school students. Unskilled workers are finding themselves working 2-3 jobs just to survive (to read more about this click on the “Minimum Wage and Wealth Inequality” tab above). But one might ask, what does this have to do with education? Many of the jobs that were once easily attainable, now required higher-level educational degrees. Compared to 35 years ago, today, men with a high school diploma make around a fifth less than they did then. College has become a necessity for upward mobility, and for those who can acquire a higher education this is not a problem, but unfortunately, higher education in America is still part of an elitist system. Wealth inequality remains as a cycle, hard to escape from, and it does not stop there. In schools segregated by districts of the wealthy and the lesser-fortunate, educational opportunities are by no means equal. For example, eleven year olds in a public education system who born in a poor neighborhood are one-third more likely to have a new teacher, and are also more likely to be held back a grade. The fact is that money is not allocated equally due to disproportionate district taxes, and even disadvantaged students that perform the best in their class fall behind as the years go on, especially in comparison to their richer counterparts. Thus, as the wealth inequality gap grows, the educational achievement gap does as well.
To read more about the endless cycle of wealth inequality in relation to education, click on any of the tabs in this section.
