Income inequality has become the defining issue in the U.S. since the end of the recession. With stagnant wages and declining mobility among the working and middle class, many Americans believe the economic system unfairly favors the wealthy. Education can change this. To do so, however, we need to create the right conditions for students to succeed (i.e., increasing opportunity) and explore solutions to help them move ahead (i.e., improving mobility). This issue of the Journal of Social Issues, Education Inequality: Opportunity and Mobility, focuses on this theme.

Norman Eng is an adjunct assistant professor of childhood education at the City University of New York, Brooklyn College and City College of New York. His research focuses on 21st century education, including publication in Society journal and as a chapter in the book?Contemporary Issues in Curriculum, published by Pearson in 2014. Most recently, he co-edited a symposium on 21st Century Excellence in Education with Allan Ornstein and published articles for the National School Board Journal and Education Week.

Allan Ornstein is a professor of education at St. John's University, New York. He is a former Fulbright-Hayes Scholar and Screening Committee Member of the Commission and author of more than four hundred articles and 60 books on education and social issues. His Foundations of Education book is in its 13th edition (since 1976) and his new book Excellence vs. Equality, from which this article is based on, was recently published in 2015. Readers can check his website, allanornsteinbooks.com, for more information.