Marsh's argument: a critical analysis

Education and economic inequality are not causally linked, claims John Marsh. Marsh teaches English at the university level and also participated in a program whereby low-income individuals could have access to higher education courses for free at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His conclusions after years of observation and analysis are that while income is linked to educational attainment, education cannot and will not be a panacea for poverty.

The belief that education is the key to upward social mobility is deeply ingrained in the American psyche, and held almost as sacrosanct. Only a few ultra-conservatives have claimed that more people need to enter vocational institutions than universities. This is not Marsh's position. Marsh is making several interrelated claims. The first is that education should not be the only means by which Americans can extricate themselves from poverty. There must be other means by which Americans can achieve upward social mobility, in the interests of broader social justice and equity.

Another of Marsh's claims is that if higher education were to be offered for free to all Americans, or if it were mandatory, then the value of education would be greatly diminished as an asset in the labor market. In other words, if everyone had a college degree, then the value of that degree would diminish until people with Master's degrees would be working at McDonalds. Furthermore, Marsh claims that it is unwise and even inhumane to pressure people to use higher education as a tool to get out of poverty. Not all people will respond to higher education. There should be other means by which people can attain upward social mobility. Marsh therefore argues that income inequity must be dealt with in a more comprehensive way than focusing on education alone. Policies and programs need to stress the structural issues that cause and perpetuate income inequity.

Marsh's arguments and observations echo what Zinn states in a People's History of the United States. As Zinn points out at several points in the book, people who are not part of the elite are politically disenfranchised and therefore unable to have access to either wealth or cultural capital. Furthermore, the best means by which to achieve upward social mobility for many people has been strong labor movements and corresponding labor laws that protect the interest of workers. Raising minimum wages, expanding opportunities for advancement, and reducing burdens on the poor are some of the ways income disparity can be minimized. These are policies and programs that have been systematically stifled in the United States, especially over the past several decades as conservatives have gained a stranglehold on policymakers and lobbyists in Washington. As Foner points out, too, New Deal policies proved effective in alleviating some of the root causes of poverty. Such forward-thinking programs and policies need to be implemented now, to curb the spread of income disparity.