Recently, my daughter and I discussed how grandma and grandpa could help with grandson Henry’s future education. My daughter shared her research on a few of the possible options we could choose to help our grandson with higher education:

New York college plan: https://www.nysaves.org/home/why-ny-529-direct-plan/grandparents.html

Utah college plan: https://uesp.org
 

Then I read the following opinion in the New York Times  and I am reminded how unequal higher education remains for those without the means or the awareness to navigate the structural system. As a member of a distinct “learning community” aimed at looking out for my grandchild, how many others are left out.  PSA asks the question:  who is in and who is out in a social learning structure? 

Over the past generation, members of the college-educated class have become amazingly good at making sure their children retain their privileged status. They have also become devastatingly good at making sure the children of other classes have limited chances to join their ranks.

How they’ve managed to do the first task — giving their own children a leg up — is pretty obvious. It’s the pediacracy, stupid. Over the past few decades, upper-middle-class Americans have embraced behavior codes that put cultivating successful children at the center of life. As soon as they get money, they turn it into investments in their kids.