A renaissance for social mobility and its significance for the bridge towards postsecondary education
Jo Ritzen
#2011-057
Inequality in earned wages is in our western society on the increase.
Social mobility is on the decrease. The contribution of education to
equality of opportunity is decreasing, because education adapts more
slowly to the increasing complexities of our societies than the home and
social environment of the upper class and the upper part of the middle
class. These are the forewarnings of a meltdown of the nuclear fusion
reactor providing the energy of our societies: trust between social
groups and hope of social betterment now and in the future for the next
generation.
Can meltdown be prevented by education, by a renaissance of social
mobility and what social engineering would be needed to bring this
about? This is the main question we address here, focused on K-12 (as
well as Early Childhood Development), against a substantiation of the
above background. We address this question in the context of the
transition from high school to postsecondary education.
This paper is written for a seminar-session on the transition of
youngsters through the education system, from ECD through K-12 from the
perspective of the potential future participation in higher education
and from the prospects of children for a future, solid position in
society, which always starts with the position on the labour market.
JEL codes: I23, I24, I25, I28, J62, O15
Keywords: postsecondary education, higher education, income inequality,
income distribution, job mobility, social mobility, economic
development, education policy