Educational Returns to Low-Income Communities

The blogger boyz are in a wonky tizzy over OMB Director Peter Orszag's speech on the need for greater federal support for college education.  Brit Andrew Sullivan is naively shocked to learn we've got a class system on this side of the Atlantic too.  Matt Yglesias and Ryan Avent both pay attention to how family income and privilege positively influence the matriculation and graduation rates of college kids.

I am going to trust that Poverty in America readers already knew all this.  What I find interesting is how big the return from higher ed is to low-income individuals - and by association, their communities.  Take the class typologies with a grain of salt here; they're used for illustrative purposes.

If I am reading the graph in the previous link correctly, then the post-degree growth in the number of children in the poorest communities who achieve middle-class status or higher is more pronounced than in any other income group.  That is, the number of kids who move into the middle-class or beyond almost doubles with college education.  This is in part because there are basically NO economic mobility prospects at the bottom of the scale, i.e., in those hourly, low-wage jobs for high school grads or dropouts - and as a result the negative inequality within the poorest quintile is dramatic.  If we can get poorer kids into and through college, their economic opportunities - for them and their families and communities, by association - improve dramatically.

Looking at the level of inequality in the system, as Yglesias et al. are doing is key.  But let's not overlook just how much low-income children and families disproportionately benefit from higher education.  That is an important public policy point, and perhaps a more palatable one, to be made as well.

(Photo of University of Albany undergraduate graduation by m00by)