The education trap : schools and the remaking of inequality in Boston / Cristina Viviana Groeger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Groeger, Cristina Viviana, 1986- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic development--Effect of education on--Massachusetts--Boston--History.

Economic development.

Labor supply--Effect of education on--Massachusetts--Boston--History.

Labor supply.

Equality--Massachusetts--Boston--History.

Equality.

Income distribution--Massachusetts--Boston--History.

Income distribution.

Occupational training--Massachusetts--Boston--History.

Occupational training.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (384 pages) : illustrations, map

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2021.

Summary:

Why—contrary to much expert and popular opinion—more education may not be the answer to skyrocketing inequality. For generations, Americans have looked to education as the solution to economic disadvantage. Yet, although more people are earning degrees, the gap between rich and poor is widening. Cristina Groeger delves into the history of this seeming contradiction, explaining how education came to be seen as a panacea even as it paved the way for deepening inequality. The Education Trap returns to the first decades of the twentieth century, when Americans were grappling with the unprecedented inequities of the Gilded Age. Groeger’s test case is the city of Boston, which spent heavily on public schools. She examines how workplaces came to depend on an army of white-collar staff, largely women and second-generation immigrants, trained in secondary schools. But Groeger finds that the shift to more educated labor had negative consequences—both intended and unintended—for many workers. Employers supported training in schools in order to undermine the influence of craft unions, and so shift workplace power toward management. And advanced educational credentials became a means of controlling access to high-paying professional and business jobs, concentrating power and wealth. Formal education thus became a central force in maintaining inequality. The idea that more education should be the primary means of reducing inequality may be appealing to politicians and voters, but Groeger warns that it may be a dangerous policy trap. If we want a more equitable society, we should not just prescribe more time in the classroom, but fight for justice in the workplace.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction: Education and Social Inequality

1. Nineteenth-Century Networks

2. Uplifting the “Unskilled”

3. Craft Power in the Industrial Workplace

4. Becoming Pink Collar

5. Professional Ladders

6. Placement in Corporate America

Conclusion: Schools, Inequality, and Worker Power

Abbreviations

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780674259157

0674259157

9780674259164

0674259165

OCLC:

1233246433