The Culture Gap

The fact that this guy is from Cato and his article is published in the WSJ doesn't mean Democrats should dismiss him -- he happens to be right.  I have yet to find a school that's successfully educating inner-city kids that doesn't have a huge cultural component to it.  

I recall asking one school leader what he does for his kids and he replied: "I do for them exactly what you do for your kids: I have the same high expectations, I teach them the same values, I make sure they get the same enrichment opportunities, etc."  Isn't this sort of obvious?  And if so, why doesn't every school in America do this!?

The problem is not lack of opportunity. If it were, the country  wouldn't be a magnet for illegal immigrants. The problem is a lack of  elementary self-discipline: failing to stay in school, failing to live within  the law, failing to get and stay married to the mother or father of your  children. The prevalence of all these pathologies reflects a dysfunctional  culture that fails to invest in human capital.
 

Other, less acute deficits distinguish working-class culture  from that of the middle and upper classes. According to sociologist Annette  Lareau, working-class parents continue to follow the traditional,  laissez-faire child-rearing philosophy that she calls "the accomplishment of  natural growth." But at the upper end of the socioeconomic scale, parents now  engage in what she refers to as "concerted cultivation" -- intensively  overseeing kids' schoolwork and stuffing their after-school hours and weekends  with organized enrichment activities.
 

This new kind of family life is often hectic and stressful, but  it inculcates in children the intellectual, organizational and networking  skills needed to thrive in today's knowledge-based economy. In other words, it  makes unprecedented, heavy investments in developing children's human  capital.
 

Consider these data from the National Education Longitudinal  Study, an in-depth survey of educational achievement. Among students who  received high scores in eighth grade mathematics (and thus showed academic  promise), 74% of kids from the highest quartile of socioeconomic status  (measured as a composite of parental education, occupations and family income)  eventually earned a college degree. By contrast, the college graduation rate  fell to 47% for kids from the middle two quartiles, and 29% for those in the  bottom quartile. Perhaps more generous financial aid might affect those  numbers at the margins, but at the core of these big differentials are  differences in the values, skills and habits taught in the home.

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The Culture Gap
By BRINK LINDSEY
July 9, 2007; Page A15
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118394472972160566.html

Cut through all the statistical squid ink surrounding the issue of economic inequality, and you'll find a phenomenon that genuinely deserves public concern.

Over the past quarter-century or so, the return on human capital has risen significantly. Or to put it another way, the opportunity cost of failing to develop human capital is now much higher than it used to be. The wage premium associated with a college degree has jumped to around 70% in recent years from around 30% in 1980; the graduate degree premium has soared to over 100% from 50%. Meanwhile, dropping out of high school now all but guarantees socioeconomic failure.


Mr. Lindsey is vice president for research at the Cato Institute and author of the just-published book, "The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America's Politics and Culture" (Collins, 2007).