Jasmine Barragan

Professor Koning
English 113B
22 March 2014
Project Text Reflection 2
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/the-reproduction-of-
privilege/?_php=true&_type=blogs&scp=5&sq=college&st=cse&_r=0
The article The Reproduction of Privilege by Thomas B. Edsall explains why upper-
class people get higher educations than low class families. Edsall explains how the amount of
college graduates for all social classes are increasing. Colleges are becoming more competitive,
for example Harvard, Emory, Stanford and Notre Dame, that are known to be the most
competitive schools. In the article, Edsall explains that low class people do not get higher
educations because they depend on scholarships and grants. Now that tuition in increasing fast,
Pell grants do not cover student tuition anymore and taking out loans is not an option for them.
One of the graphs in the article Bachelors Degree Attainment Rate shows the difference on
the improvement from different social classes and their education. The bottom income quartile
only improved by two percent to get their Bachelors degree by twenty-four years old in 1970 to
2009. They were at 6.2% in 1970 and in 2009 they started dropping to 8.3%. The second income
quartile improved by six percent. They started at 10.9% and reached 16.5%. The third income
quartile started improving by an increasingly large percentage. They started at 14.9% in the
1970s and reached 36.1% in 2009. The top income quartile amazingly doubled their percentage
in four decades. They started off with 40.2% and by 2009 they were slightly close to 83%. Edsall
explains the rich and more focus students are more likely to become rich because of the adult
earnings.
This article will help me with my paper because it had me think of ideas to why the
higher income families are more privileged. The statistics show that over a couple decades, the
bottom income families have not improved by a lot because of the amount their parents make
and the resources they have access to. It makes sense how the statistics are so low for the bottom
income classes and high for the top income classes because it is not a priority for the lower
income people to finish school because they need to make a decent income to support themselves
and most often their families. For white families, the concept of a higher education is not merely
a hope, but rather an ever present, easily obtainable reality.