Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Britain's Permanent Underclass

Social mobility is worse in today's Britain than it was even in the 1950's.

A study by Britain's Sutton Trust finds that young people from poor homes are being condemned to a life of poverty as they are unable to get into a university or well-paid employment. The report follows on the heels of another report that found "white working class boys were becoming an unemployable underclass as they performed worse at school than any other racial group."

"Sir Peter Lampl, the chairman of the Sutton Trust, said that, despite 10 years of Labour government, the best schools remained "socially selective", with only middle-class children able to gain a place.

"He called for grammar schools to admit more children from deprived backgrounds and the return of a scheme - scrapped by Labour - to give poor pupils subsidised places at private schools."

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