Social Stratification: A Description Of Social Stratification

Description of Social Stratification

• Social class

Social stratification is society’s categorization of different people into different groups based on socioeconomic statistics. Social class stratification is where a society divides two groups into two separate classes based on different accesses to resources and power. It exists in the United States by our nation’s extreme division of wealth, “. . . the wealthiest 160,000 families have as much as the poorest 145 million families.” (Matthews)

Our federal tax code certainly notices the difference between these two groups, in a study examining the tax cuts in 2001 that would go on throughout 2010, “Some 54 percent of these two tax cuts will go to households with incomes of more than $1 million

“Nationwide, states and localities are spending an average of 15 percent less per pupil in the poorest school districts, where average spending is $9,270 per child. In the most affluent where average spending is $10,721 per child.” (Brown) ““What it says very clearly is that we have, in many places, school systems that are separate and unequal,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan in an interview.” (Brown)

Sociology theory 1- Social Class stratification in Education, a conflict perspective

Under the conflict perspective of Karl Marx it describes two different groups struggling for power over limited resources. In this case it’s the wealthy vs. the poor, the poor districts just want to have the same educational access in public schools as the wealthy districts. The wealthy already have a head start in education, with smaller classroom sizes, more teachers, and a wider curriculum to choose from. Poor districts on the other hand don’t get nearly as much funding, leads to less education in these poor neighborhoods, which ultimately makes the individuals who aren’t getting a good education unable to obtain higher paying jobs. Thus contributing to the growing wage