Source: Business Inside
A key part of the “American Dream” is leaving your children in a better economic position than you were in, but that dream is less attainable for Black Americans.
An analysis by Opportunity Insights, a research organization studying intergenerational economic and social mobility, found that the children of white households in the bottom quarter of the income distribution were much more likely than children from Black households at the bottom to move up into a higher income bracket over their lives.
Educational opportunities remain starkly split by race.
A study by the Department of Education showed that in 2013, Black high school students were only a bit more than half as likely as white students to have any Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate credit, and only about a third as likely to have AP/IB credit for math.
The share of both white and Black Americans with college degrees has increased dramatically over the last half-century, but there’s still a gap.
The pipeline is part of the problem — if fewer Black children go to schools with robust resources or even math and science classes in high school, then there will be fewer students who have the support and credentials to go to college.
Even though the government desegregated schools 66 years ago, about half of students in the US still attend either predominantly white or non-white schools, according to a 2019 report from nonprofit group EdBuild. And the differences between those schools are still visible.
“For every student enrolled, the average nonwhite school district receives $2,226 less than a white school district,” the report authors wrote.
And that disparity is also true when comparing poor districts. The authors wrote:
“Poor-white school districts receive about $150 less per student than the national average — an injustice all to itself. Yet they are still receiving nearly $1,500 more than poor-nonwhite school districts.”
As with income, intergenerational educational mobility varies widely between racial groups.
This chart, based on another study from Opportunity Insights, looks at the likelihood that a child whose parents had only a high school diploma goes on to earn a college degree or higher.
Only 15% of Black students from less-educated households went on to finish college, well below the 25% of white children who earned a degree.