Unequal Childhoods 2.0: Income and Racial Inequality in Child Education Investments

• In Event: 40860 - Section on Economic Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4. Structural inequalities

Abstract

It is expensive to raise children these days. Yet, not all financial activities by parents for children have increased as substantially as those devoted to investing in children’s education. Analyzing the Survey of Consumer Finances (1989-2019), we find growth over time in education savings such as 529 Plans and increasing education debt, including federal parental PLUS loans, among families with children up to age 25. We also document growing accumulation of financial assets under children’s names but not credit card debt, signaling a focus on long-term investment rather than short-term expenditure. Importantly, we find that use of financial instruments for educational investment in children varies substantially across income and race/ethnicity. Higher income families are increasingly more likely to have pre-tax education savings for children and accumulate financial assets for children. The opposite holds for Hispanic and Black child households, and the latter are also more likely to have more education debt over time. Advancing the concepts of classed and racialized relational work of parents for children, we suggest that the imperative of parents’ education investment in children, given its rising costs, is an important driver of growing economic and racial/ethnic inequality among families in the United States.

Authors

• Nina Bandelj, University of California-Irvine

• Angelina Grigoryeva, University of Toronto

• Zaoying (Cherry) Ji, University of Massachusetts, Amherst