Income Inequality in the U.S.

On the cusp of the 21st century, Carnegie Corporation of New York partnered with the Russell Sage Foundation to explore a topic high on America’s agenda: income inequality and the social impact of this growing inequity. A Corporation grant of $1.5 million helped to commission forty-eight social scientists organized into six working groups who examined whether recent increases in economic inequality have, in fact, exacerbated social inequities in a way that might make the widening gap between rich and poor Americans difficult to reverse. The first stage of the research was published in the report Social Inequality (Russell Sage Foundation, 2004), which noted that the danger represented by the current economic divisions in our society may indeed set in motion a self-perpetuating cycle of social disadvantage. In the subsequent stages of the program, the Russell Sage Foundation has turned to in-depth examinations of the key institutions the United States relies on to counteract market-driven inequality: public education and the democratic electoral system. One outcome of this work is the book, Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality and the Uncertain Life Chances of Low-Income Children (Fall 2011), will examine how such factors as family functioning, neighborhood conditions, and local labor markets impact schools’ ability to improve the academic achievement and educational attainment of disadvantaged students. Today, given the economic challenges facing Americans across all levels of society, it is increasingly important that all our nation’s children be given the opportunity to access top-quality education that will help them start on the road to becoming effective and successful members of our democracy.