Article on Education and the Inheritance -Versus- Opportunity Tradeoff

Palma Joy Strand (Creighton University School of Law) recently published an article entitled, Education and the Inheritance -versus- Opportunity Tradeoff: The Regressive Effects of Privitization and Underinvestment, The Regressive Effects of Privatization and Underinvestment (September 28, 2013). Provided below is the abstract from SSRN:

In the U.S. we value private property and inheritance as well as equal opportunity and the social mobility of democracy. Protecting the first value, inheritance law enables the protection of family wealth over generations. Protecting the second, universal public education seeks to provide individuals the opportunity to develop the human capital that will help them attain success.

There is strong evidence that pioneering, broad-based investments in public K-12 education led to widespread and relatively egalitarian U.S. prosperity in the 20th “Human Capital” Century. Today, in contrast, minimal public investment accompanied by private purchases of education from preschool through post-secondary may have tipped the inheritance-opportunity balance away from opportunity without our fully realizing it. This tip, moreover, may be intertwined with the increasing levels of economic inequality over the same time period. There are compelling reasons to recalibrate.