We Americans have long liked to think of ourselves as born into a classless society, a place in which the best jobs, the highest incomes and the upper reaches of social status are reached not by being born into the right family, but by merit.  We believe that our schools make it possible for low status, poor and minority people with smarts, drive and ambition to ascend to the top.  But what if this is increasingly a myth?  What if our education system now serves mainly those already at the top, enabling their children to get the greatest possible advantages in the race at the expense of everyone else? 

In the mid-60s, James Coleman, in an iconic U.S. Government report, Equality of Educational Opportunity, said that the biggest influence on student achievement was not anything having to do with the schools they attended, but rather the socio-economic status of their parents.  No doubt this is partly because wealthy communities can easily raise enough money for their public schools to buy the best teachers, facilities, materials and school administrators.