A Slate article about The Clash swerves into Marxian territory with a paragraph on the use of education to protect position.
The postwar expansion had been accompanied by an idea of relative social mobility that expanded educational opportunity meant talent would be identified and rewarded, regardless of one’s social position. The reality was, however, that England was still, in relative terms, class stagnant. And when its economy stopped expanding at the generous postwar pace, the meritocratic ideal came under enormous pressure. Jobs in the professional elite were now increasingly being filled by the children of the professional elite, a pattern that continued into the ’80s and, some data suggests, intensified in the ’90s.
It’s hardly a new concept; C student Prince Charles would never have been accepted to Cambridge any more than G.W. would have waltzed into Yale. Lower down the food chain, the purpose of courses like pre-law and pre-med in the States is as much to heighten the financial barriers to entry as to educate.