Brazil's education of its emerging middle class is compared in this paper with the U.S. community colleges' education of their middle and lower class constituency. First, introductory comments argue that, just as there are stratified technological levels within the labor market, levels of knowledge can also be distinguished, pointing to access to "high status knowledge" as a critical problem in determining the equity of a nation's educational system. After presenting a rationale for comparing the two educational systems, the paper defines "middle class" for the purposes of the analysis, examines Brazil's two-tiered educational system of public and private schooling, and describes SENAI, a private educational enterprise offering industry-oriented vocational training to a select group of working class students. Next, the U.S. community colleges are described and assessed in terms of how well they serve the educational needs of the middle and lower middle classes. Educational innovations that have been implemented in Brazil with limited success are reviewed next, including efforts to offer a 2-year postsecondary curriculum and to expand university access through night classes. The final sections discuss implications and offer conclusions, indicating that both SENAI and the community college offer unique education to the lower middle levels of their respective societies, yet neither effectively offers education for those at the very bottom of the social structure. (EJV)