Using the data from a large-scale survey in Gansu province, China, the article explores the issue of school attendance among ethnic minority children from the perspective of cultural capital. We find that the rate of school attendance among ethnic minority children is substantially lower than that among ethnic Han children, but that ethnic minority individuals obtain higher returns than ethnic Han at the same level of investment in education. Despite such higher rates of returns on education, ethnic minority families display less enthusiasm for investing in education for their children. This may be attributed to differences in educational investment behavior among families with different cultural backgrounds. There are several significant differences among families with ethnic cultures such as involvement by parents, distribution of children's after school time, and religious beliefs. (Contains 3 notes, 2 figures and 4 tables.)