[Lmresearch] New Future of Children--Opportunity in America

[Russell W. Rumberger]

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           Opportunity in America
            The Future of Children, vol. 16, no. 2, Fall 2006
            Income and wealth in the United States are more unequally distributed than at any time in the past half century. Yet Americans have a deeply held belief in opportunity, and most Americans think they, or at least their children, will one day achieve the American dream. Does the dominant set of beliefs about America as a land of opportunity comport with reality? The latest volume of The Future of Children reviews evidence on how close the nation has come to this ideal and what might be done to improve opportunity. 

            The volume addresses the following questions: 
              a.. How has U.S. economic mobility changed over time? 
              b.. How does mobility vary by race, gender, and national origin? 
              c.. How do education, health, and culture affect mobility for children born in different circumstances? 
              d.. What might government do in each of these domains to make opportunity in the United States more equal? 
            Key Findings: 
              a.. Mobility in the U.S. is not as high as it is in other rich countries. 
              b.. It takes about five generations for the effects of one's family background to disappear. 
              c.. Recent trends in intergenerational mobility cannot be assessed with current data. 
              d.. Immigrants to the U.S. have done very well and usually catch up to the native-born in a generation or two. For them, America is the land of opportunity. 
              e.. Women and minorities have made great progress over the past few decades but still lag behind white men. For minorities the explanation is largely an education gap; for women it is largely family-work trade-offs. Discrimination against both groups remains an issue. 
              f.. Poor health trajectories for children who grow up in more disadvantaged circumstances hamper their subsequent economic prospects. 
              g.. Children who grow up in families with a strong work ethic, two parents, and a commitment to religion are somewhat more likely to escape poverty as adults than children from families without these three attributes. 


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