tions, college graduates were 86 percent more likely than high school graduates to vote while high school dropouts (of the same age) were 58 percent less likely than high school graduates to vote. It is further noted that differences in voting behavior by educational attainment have widened among adults 25 to 44 years of age with younger adults having somewhat less education than older adults.
It should be noted here that educational attainment is not unrelated to race and/or ethnicity and therefore these two variables interact with respect to voting behavior. In this regard, the National Center For Education Statistics (1998) reports that whites are enrolled at college in greater relative proportions than minorities.
Of some concern is the fact that these lower enrollment rates show a clear decline. For example, in 1996, the NCES (1998) reported that white high school graduates were 45 percent more likely than either their black or Hispanic peers to enroll in college; however, in the mid-to-late 1970s, enrollment levels of the three groups were roughly the same. Several other studies have also shown a strong connection between education and ethnicity (Freedman, 1991; Clark & Morrison, 1991; Arvizu, 1996; Hilton, 1995) with findings repeatedly showing that whites receive more education than minorities.
The relationship between education and voting is at least somewhat multi-determined. This can be seen in a study conducted by Kaplan and Venezky (1995) who examined the contribution of selected literacy, demographic, and sociopolitical variables on registering to vote and on voting. Subjects in the study consisted of a national sample of young people.
Using a bivariate probit regression model, the authors found that the amount of hard news read and years of education were significant predictors of voting, given registration. For registration, these variables, plus ethnicity/race, television viewing, and the degree to which...