Recently the NYTimes shows signs of coming out of its corporate cocoon to do real investigative reporting again. The recent story on WalMart corruption was terrific, and in this story, the Times looks at the deepening of the categorical inequality as it plays out in the higher education arena.
The story is based in Galveston, TX, and the charts and graphs, alone, are worth the price of the Sunday paper. If democracy is to have a chance in the U. S., and if the American dream is to be anything other than a worn-out pipe dream, it will not be under the current crush of rapacious capitalism gone wild that holds sway in the U. S. today. A clip:
Thirty years ago, there was a 31 percentage point difference between the share of prosperous and poor Americans who earned bachelor’s degrees, according to Martha J. Bailey and Susan M. Dynarski of the University of Michigan. Now the gap is 45 points.While both groups improved their odds of finishing college, the affluent improved much more, widening their sizable lead.Likely reasons include soaring incomes at the top and changes in family structure, which have left fewer low-income students with the support of two-parent homes. Neighborhoods have grown more segregated by class, leaving lower-income students increasingly concentrated in lower-quality schools. . . .
