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Race and education in America

National

Finish Line

Axios Finish Line

In America, it's better to be born wealthy — which often means white — than to be born smart.

Why it matters: For decades, the U.S. has held up schooling as the key to unlocking the American dream, but the facts tell us that education's promise is a false one.

The big picture: Family income is perhaps the strongest determinant of student success, and low income becomes an even higher barrier when it intersects with race.

Even when Black students from poor families start kindergarten with above-median test scores, 63% test below the median by the time they're in the eighth grade, a recent Georgetown University study found. 

Among Latino kindergartners in the same high-achieving, but lower-income category, 36% did worse by eighth grade, as did 39% of white students and 18% of Asian students.

High-achieving students of color are too often overlooked by teachers and administrators: The odds of Black and Latino children being referred to gifted programs are 66% and 47% lower than white students, respectively, per the Fordham Institute.

Terence Fitzgerald, an education professor at the University of Southern California said: "If the silver bullet means education will give me the agency and resources to succeed, that it will give me power that is equal to a white man’s, that is a lie."

"That will not happen. It hasn’t happened for me."

What's happening: Decades of redlining and exclusionary zoning practices have segregated our neighborhoods and, by extension, our public schools. 

The ZIP code in which you grow up determines what school you attend. And of the 10 million kids living in America's toughest places to grow up — based on poverty rate, access to nutritious food, school quality and more — 4.5 million are Latino and 3.6 million are Black. 

There's a $23 billion school funding gap between districts serving mostly white students and districts serving mostly students of color. 

Students of color — particularly Black students — are disproportionately disciplined at school, and disciplined more harshly, from a very young age. 

Black students are overrepresented among students suspended from public schools by 22%, per a Government Accountability Office report. Native American students are overrepresented by 1%. White students, Latino students and Asian students are underrepresented by 17%, 3% and 3%, respectively.

Inconsistent school discipline can rapidly fray students' trust and engagement in school — and saddle them with delinquency records, fueling the school-to-prison pipeline.

What to watch: The coronavirus pandemic has supercharged education's inequities, including access to broadband or to devices to connect to remote online classes.  

Inequities in public school funding play an outsized role in perpetuating inequality in U.S. education and linger for years to come. Funding touches every aspect of school — from who teaches students to the availability of after-school programs to the quality of lunch. 

Curriculum: Lesson plans and learning materials on slavery, the civil rights movement, indigenous peoples and immigration are seen by some as too sanitized, if these topics get taught at all.

There's an unequal reliance on school-provided resources, such as counseling, health insurance and lunches, and discrepancies in who gets what. Police and security are present in schools that serve mostly Black and Hispanic students.

The bottom line: “The idea that this is about who’s smart and who’s not is just not true,” says Anthony Carnevale, founder and director of Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce. “In the end, the system pretty much places you where you were as a child. Education is the problem. It is not the solution.”

1. The failed promise of education

It's better to be born wealthy in America than to be born smart

Photo illustration of children waving the US flag, singing children, student with a backpack, and teacher writing on a blackboard

Photo Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios. Photos: Spencer Grant, George Rose, Stephen F. Somerstein/Getty Images

Education

Deep Dive: Hard Truths - Education

Business

Future

Cities

Latin America and Latinos

<p>In America, it&#x27;s better to be born wealthy — <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="which often means white" data-vars-click-url="https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/disparities-in-wealth-by-race-and-ethnicity-in-the-2019-survey-of-consumer-finances-20200928.htm" data-vars-content-id="f89cb2af-79c3-4993-bb7e-65c306cc5a2f" data-vars-headline="The failed promise of education" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/disparities-in-wealth-by-race-and-ethnicity-in-the-2019-survey-of-consumer-finances-20200928.htm" target="_blank">which often means white</a> — than to be born smart.</p><p><strong>Why it matters: </strong>For decades, the U.S. has held up schooling as the key to unlocking the American dream, but the facts tell us that education&#x27;s promise is a false one.</p>

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

Macro

Axios Macro

2. A timeline of unequal education

From laws that prohibited education of slaves to Trump's rollback of ways to diversify schools.

Photo illustration of a hand holding a pencil surrounded by historical photography related to systemic racism and education.

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photos: Lewis W. Hine (Buyenlarge), Bettmann, Corbis/Getty Images

Politics

Property taxes are the oxygen that makes public schools thrive, allowing districts with large, wealthy tax bases to offer better educational opportunities to their students while leaving districts with smaller tax bases starved for cash. 

Why it matters: The gap plays an outsized role in perpetuating inequality in U.S. schools. Black and Latino students are likely to live in poorer neighborhoods and therefore attend poorer schools — shortchanging their education and producing consequences that snowball throughout K-12 and beyond.

Between the lines: The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world where the wealth of your neighborhood plays a pivotal role in the quality of your public school education.

Restrictive housing policies, including redlining and property covenants that locked out Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans, led to segregated neighborhoods — and in turn, segregated schools — across the United States. 

“Redlining did not allow Black people into schools that were better funded or higher quality,” Travis Bristol, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education, tells Axios.

The big picture: A school district's budget determines everything from the quality of the teachers to the availability of after-school programs, honors courses and even the quality of lunch.  

Better outcomes for lower-income students are directly linked to better funding for public schools, according to a study by Northwestern University and UC Berkeley. 

Increases in per-pupil spending lead to more years of completed education, higher pay, and a lower chance of adult poverty. 

The state of play: The funding disparities can be vast, not only within states but sometimes in neighboring school districts.

Detroit’s public school district, which is 98% non-white, gets roughly $11,200 in local and state funding combined per pupil. 

Across the district boundary lies affluent Gross Pointe, which is 25% non-white, has one-seventh the number of students Detroit has, and spends upwards of $3,000 more per student, according to an EdBuild analysis of the 2017-2018 school year.

The role of states: The formulas that determine how much state money school districts get and how schools distribute those funds varies from state to state. 

Some states make up the difference between what they determine to be adequate spending per student and what the property taxes cover in poorer districts.

Still, it's rarely enough to close the funding gap between rich and poor schools. And state budget constraints often put this school funding at risk.

The role of federal government: Federal funding plays a small role, contributing about 8% for overall funding for K-12 public schools. 

Schools on Native American reservations, however, are almost entirely supported by federal funds. About 7% of Native American students attend those schools.

Driving the news: The pandemic has laid bare how poor schools have had to scramble to adjust to virtual learning. 

One example: In poorer schools, many students share computers or laptops, said Darnisa Amante-Jackson, co-founder of Disruptive Equity Education Project, an organization that consults with public schools across 60 districts.

Underfunded schools can't provide the same resources for individual students, such as laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots, that richer schools can. 

The result is that students fall behind, losing months of learning.

What to watch: The pandemic’s squeeze on state finances could jeopardize how much states contribute to school budgets.  

California has already deferred part of its school funding contribution, possibly aggravating the divide.

3. The public school funding divide

The gap plays an outsized role in perpetuating inequality in U.S. schools.

Photo illustration of children on a vintage computer keyboard, students smiling as their desks, and a quarter

Photo Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios. Photos: Bettmann, Barbara Alper/Getty Images

Policymaking

<p>Property taxes are the oxygen that makes public schools thrive, allowing districts with large, wealthy tax bases to offer better educational opportunities to their students while leaving districts with smaller tax bases starved for cash. </p><p><strong>Why it matters</strong>: The gap plays an outsized role in perpetuating inequality in U.S. schools. Black and Latino students are likely to live in poorer neighborhoods and therefore attend poorer schools — shortchanging their education and producing consequences that snowball throughout K-12 and beyond.</p>

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Data: Axios/Ipsos poll; Note: ±2.4% margin of error; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

A strong majority of Americans say our public education system is unequal, and half say the nation's schools aren't well equipped to help children of all races and ethnicities succeed, according to a new Axios-Ipsos survey.

Why it matters: As our nation becomes more diverse and confronts racial discrimination, Americans want our school systems to live up to the promise of providing a more equal opportunity for all children to succeed.

Eight in 10 Americans say public education is unequal, with different outcomes based on where students live. 

They’re not wrong. Our survey confirmed what some academic studies have shown: wide disparities in access to high quality education, funding, college prep courses and counseling services. These inequalities track along socioeconomic and racial lines.

That disparity has only grown during the pandemic, as online learning has exposed the haves and have-nots of America’s K-12 system, with poorer districts struggling. Meanwhile, most private schools are providing in-person classroom learning.

Americans are divided on whether schools are equipped to help children of all racial and ethnic backgrounds "get ahead," with 51% saying they agree with that statement while 48% disagree.

The big picture: While a majority of Americans rate their own educational experience as "good" or "excellent," they also say the time has come to provide a more accurate picture of our nation's history.

A majority, 68% percent, agree with the statement that "Public schools in America should teach more about racism as a part of American history lessons."

Overall, a majority of Americans (77%) say what they learned in school about American history was accurate, while 23% said it was not accurate. White Americans (84%) were most likely to say what they learned was accurate, while just 55% of Black Americans think so.

What they're saying: “There is a broad recognition that most Americans have not learned enough about the role of Black, Hispanic, Native and Asian Americans in building this country," said Chris Jackson, senior vice president of public affairs at Ipsos. "Despite some of the culture war heat, most Americans appear to want a broader curriculum about all our founders.”

White and Asian Americans are far more likely to say they attended a “top-rated” school with “sufficient funding” when compared with Black or Hispanic Americans. The survey did not have a large enough sample size to provide data for Native Americans.

Overall, Hispanic/Latino Americans were the group least likely to rate their education experience as well-funded, top-rated or safe. 

67% of white Americans and 62% of Asian Americans say they attended a “top-rated” school, compared with just 53% of Hispanic Americans and 57% of Black Americans.

Hispanic Americans were most likely to say they attended a school that was not safe. One in 4 said that, compared with just 9% of white Americans and 7% of Asian Americans. 15% of Black Americans said their school was not safe.

Half of Black Americans and 45% of Hispanic Americans said there was a police presence at their school, compared with just a third of white and Asian students. 

Similarly, 57% of Black students and 55% of Latino/Hispanic students said their schools had “sufficient funding,” compared to 68% of Asian Americans and 77% of white Americans. 

Hispanic/Latino and Black Americans are the least likely to say their K-12 experience prepared them for careers after high school.

Just over a third of Hispanic and Black Americans say they had money to pay for at least a portion of college. A majority of white (59%) and Asian Americans (73%) said they could do so. 

And just 57% of Hispanic/Latino Americans said their schools offered advanced placement or college prep courses, compared with three-fourths of Asian Americans who said the same.

Among Hispanics, a third said no one had talked to them about going to college. That was true for just 1 in 5 white Americans.

The bottom line: A majority of Americans say education is the great equalizer, but through their lived experiences, Americans say we're falling short of that ideal.

About the survey: The Axios-Ipsos survey was conducted in English and Spanish Nov. 4-12 with 1,999 American adults with a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percentage points and a 95% confidence level. The survey included 718 white Americans, 515 Black Americans, 524 Hispanic Americans and 199 Asian Americans.

4. Poll: Majority of Americans find inequity in our education system

Half of Americans say schools aren't equipped to help children of all races and ethnicities succeed.

Racism

<p>A strong majority of Americans say our public education system is unequal, and half say the nation&#x27;s schools aren&#x27;t well equipped to help children of all races and ethnicities succeed, according to a new <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Axios-Ipsos survey" data-vars-click-url="https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/axios-education-inequity-2020" data-vars-content-id="1a1af17b-8a8a-460e-921e-aee99e30c493" data-vars-headline="Poll: Majority of Americans find inequity in our education system" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/axios-education-inequity-2020" target="_blank">Axios-Ipsos survey</a>.</p><p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> As our nation becomes more diverse and confronts racial discrimination, Americans want our school systems to live up to the promise of providing a more equal opportunity for all children to succeed.</p>

American history classes have failed to represent the experiences that children of color live, leaving some students struggling to see themselves or their cultures as part of America.

Why it matters: Accurate historical teachings on slavery, indigenous peoples and immigration help all students understand how people of color have shaped American society. Ethnic studies courses can narrow the learning gap and boost the academic performance of some students of color at risk of dropping out, experts say.

"We don’t want to make villains out of people, and at the same time history should be honest. History should account for people’s lived experiences," said Leilani Sabzalian, who is Alutiiq and an assistant education professor at the University of Oregon. 

Driving the news: The summer's racial justice protests have moved students and professionals to examine the historical inconsistencies in textbooks and the singular perspective in school curriculums.

Neither states nor the U.S. Education Department requires or recommends expanding history beyond the contributions of European descents, the Southern Poverty Law Center found. 

Lessons on the "first Thanksgiving," for example, mention pilgrims but don't identify the Wampanoag tribe as the Native Americans who attended the feast, or detail their relationship to the pilgrims.

High school AP classes emphasize European history, with little mention of the contributions of other parts of the world. In 2018, the College Board announced that its AP World History course would cut all history before 1450.

5. A reckoning with teaching race and history in America

Children of color often struggle to see themselves in their history lessons.

<p>American history classes have failed to represent the experiences that children of color live, leaving some students struggling to see themselves or their cultures as part of America.</p><p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> Accurate historical teachings on slavery, indigenous peoples and immigration help all students understand how people of color have shaped American society. Ethnic studies courses can narrow the learning gap and boost the academic performance of some students of color at risk of dropping out, <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="experts" data-vars-click-url="https://news.stanford.edu/2016/01/12/ethnic-studies-benefits-011216/" data-vars-content-id="6c4640ba-3f2b-4c43-94db-376f3571bd86" data-vars-headline="A reckoning with teaching race and history in America" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://news.stanford.edu/2016/01/12/ethnic-studies-benefits-011216/" target="_blank">experts</a> say.</p>