The Social Benefits Of Education

Education has been considered an investment value. Those who acquire additional schooling generally earn more over their lifetimes, achieve higher level of employment, and enjoy more satisfying careers. It also enable people to more fully enjoy life, appreciate literature and culture and be more socially involved citizens.

Private returns to education refer to the benefits received by the individual who acquires additional schooling. These include economic benefits such as higher lifetime earnings, lower level of unemployment, and greater job satisfaction, improve health and longevity.

Social returns refer to positive or possibly negative consequences that accrue to individuals other than the indivudal or family making the decision. About how much schooling to acquire. These are the benefits not taken into account by the decision-maker.

II. Rationales for Government involvement In Post Secondary Education

Efficiency gains result in an increase in society’s total output of goods and services, and thus allow achievement of higher average living standards

Equity considerations relate not to the average standards of living but how society’s total output is distributed among citizens.

Second argument to intervention is that in the absence of interventions such as student loan programs – individuals who might benefit from higher education but who do not have the financial resources to finance the investment are typically unable to use their potential human capital as collateral for loan.. The talent of the population may not be fully utilized and the total output of goods and services may fall short of its potential. Both of these efficiency rationales involve a potential market failure. The first arises because of positive external benefits associated with education -social benefits that exceed private benefits. The second arises because of a failure in credit market that results in some individuals being unable to finance productive investments.

III. Estimating Private and Social Returns to Education

Education is one of the best predictors of success in the labour market. More educated workers earn higher wages, have greater earnings growth over their lifetimes, experience less unemployment and work longer

Higher education is also associated with higher longer life expectancy, better health and reduced participation in crime.

According to human capital theory, schooling raises earnings because it enhances workers skills thus making employees more productive and more valuable to employers.

III. Social Returns to Education

positive or possibly negative consequences that accrue to individuals other than the indivudal or family making the decision. About how much schooling to acquire. These are the benefits not taken into account by the decision-maker.

A. Innovation, knowledge creation and economic growth

new growth theory: emphasizes the contribution of knowledge creation and innovation in fostering advances in living standards over time.. education plays an important role in economic growth . knowledge creation and innovation respond to economic incentives, and thus can be influenced by public policy.

The education and skill formation systems play an important role in fostering innovation and advancing knowledge. There are 3 main dimensions to this role

related to research function of educational institutions esp. universities – can be an important source of new ideas. Accgd. To this perspective the human capital of the workforce is a crucial factor facilitating the adoption of new and more productive technologies. Human capital of the workforce is a crucial factor facilitating the adoption of new and more productive technologies. The transfer of knowledge function msut be reflected to the returns to education. Those receiving educ will become more prodictive and thus more valuable to the employers. Post sec educ in oecd countries is relatively more important than with primary and secondary educ in developing countries

B. Knowledge spillovers

Static knowledge spillovers arise if more education raises not only the productivity of those receinvg the education but alos the productivity of those they work with and interact with.

Jacobs argue that cities are engine of growth bec they facilitate the exchange of ideas esp. between entrepreneurs and managers

Such knowledge spillovers can take place thorugh the echange of ideas, imitation and learning by doing

C. Non-market effects of education

Other forms of benefits other than higher wages or non-wage benefits from working. This includes improved onw health or child dev. – private in nature and thus may be taken into account by individuals in cjoosing the amount of educ to acquire.

Authors find considerable impact of educ on a wide variety of non-0market and social benefits even after controlling income, age, health and race. This includes

effect of wifes’ schooling on husband earnings

effect of parents educ on child outcomes (intergenerational effects): education, cognitive ability, health and fertility choices

effect of educ on own health and spouse health

effect of educ on consumer choice efficiency, labour market etc

effect of educ on charitable giving and volunteeractivity

higher ave of educ levels in the community lower school dropout rates of children

D. Intergenerational effect

parents education has strong effects on children, resulting in large intergenerational effects

parental educ on a number of child outcomes including

higher parental educ is associated with lower fertility via increased efficiency of contraception as well as via raising the age of both marriage and first pregnancy. The resulting of lower pop growth is positive for economic growth in dev countires

incidence of teenage childbearing is much higher for children of less educated parents

child abuse and neglect are also associarted with parents educ

high parental educ – more subs family investments in children , loer criminal propensities , improved child health

children of less educated poarents generally cost more to educate

intergenerational benefits of educ to society: lower educ cost, less ue of foster care and juvenile diversion, lower crime, lower heakth cost and lower dependence on welfare transfers

E. Health and longeivity

child health is posivitve related to parents educ

results to superior health behaviors: reduced smoking, more exercise and low incidence of heavy drinking

educ people adopt newer drugs due to ability to learn and more info thus educ leads to better health

F. Criminal Activity

high educ levels may lower crime byb raising wage rates, which increase the opportunity cost of crime

lower crime rates

G. Civic participation

correlation between educ and voting is high .

higher educ is also associated with greater charitable giving and volunteerism

trust and participation

educ raises the quality of peoples involvement in the society

H. Tax and transfer returns

more educ are less likely to return on public transfers wven when elgivible for benefits

FLEMISH EDUCATION, BETWEEN MERTIOCRACY AND EGALITARANISM

By: Ides Nicaise

I. A Century of Reforms- without much success

social inequality in education still exist in flanders

compulsory educ until the age of 18

90’s began with an experimentation on ” positive discrimination” schools with a large number of pupils from underprivileged groups (immigrants, disadvantaged pupils) received additional funding

What is lacking is a clear choice in favour of a more egalitarian of educ

Two Basic Views of Equality

Meritocracy

Egalitarianism

Both visions to a certain extent share the same concern: out an end to the unjustified passing on of power , prestige, and wealth based on a person’s descent.

Allocation of social positions should no longer be ascribed to individuals based on their origins (the principle of ascription), rather these positions should be acquired based on achievement

Every member of society should regardless of social origin have the same opportunities to prove himself

Meritocracy – an ideology of equal opportunities .. and unequal treatment

Principle of individual merit which boils down to a combination of talent and effort

False justice theory, results in a disguised reproduction of the existing inequalities

Tony Blair- ambition to make his country a meritocratic society. Nederlands and Sweden were the first to achieve the higest stage of a meritocratic educ society

Social positions to be distribuited on the basis of merit (talent and effort)

The existing social inequality can essentially be explained by three set of factors

innate abilities – genetically determined

social background- transfer of matrial assets, social networks, and cultural capital. This is regarded as unfair ; these are the mechanisms that have to be eliminated as much as possible , eg by the provision of free and freely accessible educ. Accdg. To meritocratic thinking, society is not responsible for the two other sets of factors. Innate ability (for the time being) a question of coincidence, personal effect-responsibility of every individual

personal preferences and effort

opposed to the social transfer of power and prosperity, but inequality exists in ” merit” . the merit ” talent” . it is implicitly assumed that tlents are purely randomly distributed among the pop. And tehrfore have nothing to do with social origins

The meritocratic recipe for educ can be summarized in 3 major principles

everyone must have equal access to education according to innate ability .

equal opportunities : opportunities refer to coincidental factor which is not within our power and which helps determine the outcomes of educ and future social pos. The aim is not therefore equal outcomes, but a particular distribution of possible outcomes which are unrelated to a person’s social background

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equal access educ is not unconditional. Everyone should have access to educ accdg to his innate ability. It is accepted that not everyone gains access to the same extent to a given level or type of educ. Specifically, financial obstacles in education will have to be eliminated as much as possible but that admission tests or intelligence tests can be accepted a legitimate selection criteria.

Unequal treatment of individuals based on merit is regarded as legitimate. In other words it is accepted that more is invested in persons who display a greater innate ability and or more personal effort. .

moral to economic inter… regarded as fair community invest more resources in people with more talent, perhaps they have merited this, but bec they are expected to contribute more in the future to collective prosperity to those who have shall be given inequality based on social background will disappear if the two previous principles are consistently applied

Principle of equal opportunites has been translated into compulsory education and free educ. Compulsory educ is a way of legally limiting parents’ freedom of choice regarding educational participation

Second principle- differential treatment accdg to talent and effort, forms the counterbalance to this mildness at the entrance gate . Flemish educ is extremely selective and achievement -oriented

What is wrong with meritocracy?

John Goldthorpe – inherited talents are in no way an element of merit and as a result the ethical justification for this social model is immediately negated

Dick pels- adds a number of arguments to demonstrate that even on a labour market regarded as competitive and meritocratic

Youn- meritocracy in its most perfect form eventually leads to a new type of class-based society

Egalitarianism: a relic from the communist era?

Egalitarianism is the basic percepts of human rights, ie the equal dignity and freedom of people

The right of educ may not depend on the talents of an individual but is, to a certain extent, an absolute right

Absolute rights do indeed apply to ” basic goods

John Rawls- people will agree that distribution of basic goods must be strictly egalitarian and may not be dependent on something like talents, precisely bec. Talents are unearned

Inequalities that contribute to an improvement in the position of the poorest citizens – gradation differences exist within egalitarianism: at the level of elem educ., it refers to equal outomes (a level that everyone should attain), at the higher level- equal opportunities

The emphasis on equal outcomes (elem and sec) forms a second critical area of difference bet. Egalitarianism and meritocracy. Amartya Sen emphasis the basic right is only effective if the result is achieved, not if it is written down in law. This means that authorities bear the responsibility for guaranteeing the implementation of basic rights for all.

Principle of positive discrimination- priority given to disadvantage

Egalitarianism implicitly assumes that equal outcomes are possible. Students in the primary and sec levels are in the position to achieve the targets

Traces of egalitarianism in Flemish educ: attainment targets in guaranteeing pupils with the same min skill level remains limited. Study grants from merit.. to egalitarian vision

Trojan Horse of the Lower Classes

Protagonist of greater equality are not infrequently accused but face with some questions:

A society cannot consist solely of university graduates . labour market also needs semi-skilled workers. . the egalitatain base refers to basic education.

– equal outcomes can be interpreted in 2 ways: strict def.: same target level is applied for every individual , broader def. accepts certain variation in individuals. In other words, individual differences are tolerated but the average outcomes among children from various social environments must be equalized

– resistnace to egalitarianism: postivie discrimination in favour of the underprivileged groups could be flipside of negative discrimination against them (white person with high score over black with low score- black gets priorty- contest

– educ is not a zero sum game in which better outcomes for one group are achived at the expense of poore results for another group. The key is to adapt reform and strategies that more equal outcomes go hand in hand with a sin-win sit for every one (ex. R3educed referral to SPED

Educational Strategies for disadvantaged youth in 6 European countries

By : I. Nicaise

Intro

Gen. level of educ is increased but has demonstrated that in most countries inequality is passed on unrelentingly .. social exclusion

Social Equality in Education

Current educ system filters, segregates and reproduces social inequality

Dream of democratic educ sys- the dream of equal opportunites and unhindered social mobility. Everyone is entitled to benefit to a resonalbe extent from their education .

Whether consciously or not, many harbour meritocratic view of education, it is assumed that everyone has equal opportunites but equal porofit is certainly not an aim because aaacdg to the theory, the unequal benefit from educ merely reflects the efforts and talents of each individual . As Goldthrope demosntatres, meritocratic ideology expliclty perceives unequal educational outcomes as fair. .. it hastily passess over the issue of the unequal socity in which education is rooted

A priori opportunities are not equal and unequal outcomes are not fair

2. Equal Opportunity Strategies

Integrated approach to poverty, inequality and social exc