For at least 15 years, critics of American higher education have pointed to its dumbbell configuration – at one end there are “Walmart institutions” providing a mass-market educational experience with large classes, adjunct faculty, low retention rates, and no selectivity to the vast majority of American undergraduates. At the other end are prestige institutions providing a luxurious education marked by small class size, high retention rates, high selectivity, and lush campus resources to a small  elite.

In truth, however, it’s been hard to fit the realities of the American higher education landscape into the dumbbell model. Where, for example, do you put the private, regional liberal arts colleges of the northern Midwest? Or the many smaller, high quality public institutions like my client, UMBC? We can now see with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, that in the recent past the growing class disparities in the American higher education system were masked by middle class families’ belief in and financing through debt of access to luxury education for their children. What occurred in higher education is similar to what occurred in other parts of the economy: a sizable fraction of the population who could not genuinely afford a luxury lifestyle bought into the fantasy fueled by debt that they in fact could. This impacted luxury education just as it impacted markets for luxury homes, clothes, and vehicles.

The future will not be so rosy. What we are seeing with the current economic recession is widening and calcification of the dumbbell structure. In fact, the highly selective institutions are doing quite well. Applications generally are up. It is true that many have suffered significant hits to their endowments. But looking down the road it is clear that the competitive culture and high demand among the affluent classes for a highly selective prestige institution will not abate. In fact, it will grow. Five years from now, the arms-race of gleaming new dorms, gyms, and marquee professors will once again be in full swing.

The saddest aspect of the growing disparity between “Walmart” and luxury institutions is the erosion of access in the public higher education system. Almost every day there is another article about public flagship universities raising fees and looking to recruit more affluent students in order to raise revenues. Steve Brint wrote an excellent overview in last week’s Washington Post.

What I find ironic about the current trend in American higher education is that the affluent classes have built a system where a disproportionate fraction of public and private resources flow to them yet they refer to it as a meritocracy and its products as meritocrats. Most members of the class surrounding higher education, who are generally liberal, somehow believe that their children achieve in this system due to merit. In fact, two alternate education systems have been built – one that provides large amounts of coddling, resources, and hand-holding to children of the privileged classes and another that provides a mundane and blunt education to everyone else. The SATs and other “standardized tests” reinforce this system.

What’s the bottom-line? The rest of the world will look on us with a chuckle as our place in the global education-based economy erodes. The class calcification that is occurring in our educational system is a distraction from global competitiveness. We are using our system to reinforce a class elite rather than educate our population.

What is the answer? For me, the most obvious point of attack is to focus on science and math education. One of the characteristics of the luxury educational system is that it is predominantly weighted toward verbal skills because it is in this area that the different child-rearing styles of the cultural elite and other classes is most pronounced. It is virtually impossible for a young person, no matter how bright, from a non-privileged background to compete in the area of verbal skills with the cultural elites. If we are to have any hope as a society it needs to be based on math and science skills, since these are taught in a style that makes them more accessible to intelligent young people regardless of class background.

If you are a member of this elite and want to work for broader access, focus on the quality of math and science instruction in your school. Lobby to have entrance requirements that are weighted toward verbal skills – such as entrance essays and the three sections of the SAT – overturned. If you work at a college or university, understand that you are part of the problem if 2/3 of your students major in non-science and math areas. (Why do we need all these humanities and social science majors anyway?) Understand that the widespread fleeing from technical disciplines in luxury institutions reinforces the dumbbell structure. Although a focus on math and science doesn’t seem that it would address class disparities in education, it is in fact our most important leverage point.