Inequality Of Educational Opportunities And The Widening Income Gap Analysis

In the background of the enlarging income gap in our country, scholars present various ideas to explain the enlarging gap. The theory of different factors of production gaining different income has been accepted by many scholars. However, it hasn't taken into account the factors that leading to the different endowments possessed by different people. This paper takes the factor of educational opportunity into consideration and points out that this factor mainly acts on income gap through its effects on human capital stock, thus results in income gap through the competition system in the marketNowadays the inequality of educational opportunity is mainly embodied in three aspects: between the urban and rural area, among different regions and different income groups. Although the inequality between the urban and rural area can be attributed to our educational investment system, the three aspects mainly result from the restriction of different income on educational investment. The difference in income level leads to different human capital investment and hence the income gap with its intergenerational continuity. The restriction is strikingly embodied in the higher education. Universities and colleges began to charge tuition in 1997 in our country. With the increase in the tuition, more and more people cannot afford higher education. Thus the distribution of educational opportunity is favored to the urban and developed regions and higher income groups.This paper points out that there is a positive interrelation between the inequality in educational opportunity and the enlarging income gap, that is, the more unequal the educational opportunity is, the larger the income gap will be. Because of the possible vicious circle between the inequality in educational opportunity and the enlarging income gap, it is a necessity for the government to distribute educational opportunity equally, change the unfairness for the unprivileged group, increase their human capital investment and thus make all the equally gifted man get equal opportunity to develop.