Educational Inequality In The Middle Class

“Although the educational system helps certain poor children to move into middle class professional positions, it denies most disadvantaged children the same educational opportunities afforded to children of the affluent. In this way, schools tend to preserve social class inequalities in each new generation” (p. 240). In this quote, the author of our course textbook, Richard T. Schaefer throws light upon the conflict perspective of education and how the educational system is designed to bestow status differentially. In simpler words, the educational system does not improve life chances for the poor noticeably, since they start from a very low position on the ladder of social status. Educational system serves as a very strong bureaucratic system which caters the needs of the upper class and the upper middle class who can afford to pay for quality higher education. On the other hand, children from poor families, despite having
According to conflict theorists, the educational system preserves inequality because of the increasing tuition and degree requirements for professional positions that are ranked higher in terms of income and prestige. Students from disadvantaged families must depend on grants and huge loans if they intend to go for a professional degree that will bring a change in their social status and help them move from the working class to lower class, or to the middle class. Professions like doctors and surgeons are for students who come from affluent families who have huge savings to fund such expensive degrees, and even after making such huge investments, students are drowned in student loans for years and years. In today’s world, being intelligent, having a high IQ level and creativity are not enough to secure a high social status through education. One must come from a social status that is already high to maintain that status