Overview

• At kindergarten, children of executives outperform those of manual workers by wide margins in language and mathematics tests.
• The sixth grade acts as a tipping point, with 91 percent of students from affluent families meeting expected math benchmarks versus 50 percent of disadvantaged peers.
• Students from working-class backgrounds are 6.5 times more likely to enter vocational tracks and remain underrepresented in general and preparatory streams.
• The share of working-class pupils in higher education remains stuck at 27 percent—identical to the rate recorded in 2009 despite overall enrollment growth.
• The top 10 percent now earn over seven times more than the bottom 10 percent, and immigrants face a median income 24 percent below native-born residents.