According to the OECD, the US has the distinction of being the only industrialised country where the next generation is not going to be better educated than the previous - in a form of educational downward mobility.
The government has promised to set up a social mobility and child poverty commission, and also recently announced plans for an annual "snapshot" of social mobility by measuring information such as educational achievement, access to professions and birth weights.
There has been much debate about social mobility in the UK - with concerns that there remains too strong a link between social background and educational achievement.