Education as the "elevator" to social mobility. they believe that education provides all students with opportunities, and they argue that students' abilities are now more important than their class, race, or gender in determining success.

Social Mobility is the movement of individuals from 1 level to another in a social system; now "Funtionalism" is the believe that social order is key to the success and welfare of society and it's achieved with collective conscience, solidarity and by working together; with education being one of the social structures providing stability to the social system.

Therefore, "Functionalist Theorists view education as the "elevator" to social mobility".

Explanation:

the historians cited in the article all agree with one another about the cause of the civil war. despite coming from different backgrounds and cultures, the historians agree that slavery was the root cause of the civil war. the fact that all these historiansgenerally agree with one another makes their shared viewpoints more reliable and valid, especially because the historians have different backgrounds and all work for the well-respected institutions of howard university, clemson university, and the university of colorado.