Higher education costs widening mobility gap

Education – the salvation of the nation’s poor and often disenfranchised student over the last 30 years – now is pegged as a clear divider in a widening economic gap, even for those who pursue and complete college degrees.
“Everyone wants to think of education as an equalizer – the place where upward mobility gets started,” Greg J. Duncan, an economist at the University of California, Irvine, recently told the New York Times. “But on virtually every measure we have, the gaps between high- and low-income kids are widening. It’s very disheartening.”
While both wealthy and low-income students have improved their odds of finishing college, the affluent have a sizable lead. That’s more than likely because they return home to segregated neighborhoods of economically comfortable residents, who become their sources for high-income jobs. Struggling students, are laden with high student-loan debt and jobs that interfere with their ability to maintain the high grade point averages that nab the top salaries after graduation. Read more...