Globalization and Human Capital

Early in the 20th century, most American youth started working before age 20, even if only on a part-time basis. Teen employment diminished markedly in the Great Depression, but during World War II demand for labor skyrocketed. By the postwar period, more teens had enrolled in high school, and it was more difficult to get full-time work without a diploma. Following publication of A Nation at Risk, public interest in education and reform rose appreciably. Reagan’s successor, George H. W. Bush, was elected in the late 1980s, having campaigned as the “education president,” even though he proposed little meaningful change in policies. The American credo of democracy and equality has been tested in recent decades by a number of other developments. Following the 1980s, educational inequality has widened, school segregation has increased, and the problems of poor and minority children have grown more acute.