Universal high school access widened class and race gaps, not narrowed them

The US rapidly built high schools between 1850 and 1910. This expansion opened up new economic chances for many young people, but it also made class and racial inequality worse.

Many people assume that giving everyone access to a public good, like education, automatically reduces inequality. This paper shows that the opposite can happen. When high schools spread across the US, they helped women get better jobs and marry later. But the biggest gains went to children from rich families, and Black children saw no benefit on average.