Education allows upwards social mobility

The argument that education is a path of upwards social mobility is, in my opinion, a bit controversial. The biggest challenge is the definition first, of social mobility, and then of a context that allows for the entire society to move upwards and not just a small fraction while the rest is convected down as in a close system. The fact that science education outputs correlate with socioeconomic level is pointing towards this direction.

On of the possibilities is that education enables upwards mobility globally through the progress it will generate during many decades. If correlating GDP to scientific productivity is a reasonable proxy for progress, one must ask how to increase scientific productivity, and that is one of the key aspects, I believe of why we teach science in school, to broaden the base of interested people and proposed solutions.