Unequal Higher Education in the United States: Growing Participation and Shrinking Opportunities

Barrett J. Taylor and Brendan Cantwell
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Barrett J. Taylor: Department of Counseling and Higher Education, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA
Brendan Cantwell: Department of Educational Administration, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA

Social Sciences, 2018, vol. 7, issue 9, 1-22

Abstract: This paper argues that rising institutional inequality is a component of individual-level inequality in the United States because U.S. higher education provides a diverse group of students with unequal access to different kinds of institutions. Using latent profile analysis, we classified all public and private nonprofit higher education institutions in the U.S. from 2005 to 2013 into seven categories. We held these categories stable over time and allowed institutions to move between them. “Good value” institutions were scarce and tended to limit access through selective admission. Only Subsidy Reliant institutions that were directly supported by government appropriations regularly provided good value seats to a racially diverse group of students. Yet the number of institutions in the Subsidy Reliant category declined markedly over time. The resulting system offered access to many students but provided limited opportunity to secure a good value seat.

Keywords: institutional stratification; high participation system; race in the U.S.; inequality of outcomes; politics of higher education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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