This paper examines the relationship among South African children between family structure, schooling outcomes, and investment in education. Schooling outcomes include current enrollment in school, highest grade completed, and number of grades completed per year, while investment is education is measured in terms of expenditures on school fees. Family structure has important effects on schooling outcomes and investments for blacks and coloureds; in particular, children who live with neither parent are consistently disadvantaged. For whites, family structure has little or no effect on schooling outcomes and investments. Racial disparities in schooling outcomes largely disappear when background factors are controlled for. The results suggests that variations in family structure are a contributing factor to continued racial inequality in educational attainment in post-apartheid South Africa.
 
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Last modified: 05-31-05
by Kermyt G. Anderson