s. This can because of purposeful discrimination, but more often it is because the social institution of education has sexism and racism built into it. Study after study has shown that students from upper classes consistently do better in school and continue their education, whereas lower classes students do not have the same success. Students from upper class families have high expectations placed on them that they will be successful in school and achieve an occupation of equal or great value than that of their parents. It is expected that they can and will do well, and therefore they do. Students from lower class families do not have high expectations for themselves, and they often only aspire to the occupation level of their parents thus maintaining the status quo. The credentials of a college degree are also not equal. A student who obtains a degree from a private, elite school will have lifetime earnings increase of over 85%, while a degree from a good private school or better state school increases earnings by 50%, and a degree from any other school provides no advantage. The cost of tuition for the very elite schools is often out of range for all but the most upper class. Lower classes can usually only afford to attend the last category. The lower classes are still denied opportunities to get ahead and the class stratification is continued.Schools perpetuate gender and race stratification as well. Boys tend to receive more encouragement to take more math and science as well as more advanced courses than girls do. In the professional world, women are shut out of occupations involving higher math and science skills. Minorities also have less opportunity to do well in school. Minorities are more likely to grow up in poverty and live in unhealthy environments. Their parents may lack the skills to help the child with schoolwork. Minorities are concentrated in the inner city where the worst, most impoverished schools ...
