Fact Check: The Black Reality of USA’s Educational Landscape

Education is a human right which when denied, makes a society lag behind. Unfortunately, the Blacks in the U.S. have been facing discrimination in all realms. The education sector is not an exception to this rule.

The U.S. spends considerably more on education than other OECD countries. Yet, it doesn’t translate to better educational outcomes when the system is unequal and discriminatory. By 2022, the number of Hispanic students in public elementary and secondary schools will grow 33%. The number of multi-racial students is expected to grow 44%, respectively. The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that whites will shrink to 46% of public-school students by 2025.

As the percentage of white students shrinks and the percentage of students of color grow, the education system will fail to serve the majority of its children properly, which will have a far-reaching impact.

Several other factors too contribute to disparities in the education of African American associations in the USA.

Disparity Begins Right at the Schools

When a child from the Black community enters school, discrimination and deprivation loom large on them.

Research shows that compared to non-black students, black students are more likely to be admitted in schools and suspended or expelled, less likely to be placed in gifted programs, and subject to lower expectations from their teachers. Yet, in many cases, such differences aren’t malicious or intentional. Instead, some of these arise from cultural misunderstandings or unintentional ‘implicit biases’ that unknowingly affect our thoughts and behaviors. Teachers might also be less likely to spot black students who excel academically, for instance.

Unequal Economic Opportunities

The gaps in educational opportunity for the Black kids are inextricably linked to lags in economic opportunity for the Black adults. Today almost three-fourth of both African American and Hispanic students attend schools where most of their classmates qualify as poor or low-income. Whereas, for whites, the proportion is only about one-third. Families with low income and an average standard of living tend to send their children to affordable schools and thus end up deprived. Black children are also far more likely to live in households that are low-income, or extremely poor or food-insecure, or receive long-term welfare support. Research has also shown that most minority students are left to attend classes with larger sizes, under-qualified teachers, and lower-quality curriculum. The recent incidents of police brutality and the appalling impact of the pandemic only highlighted the grim reality of the education sector that has been here for a long time. Discrimination exists and is witnessed by people of color daily. For Blacks, the allocation of opportunity in a society is increasingly dependent on knowledge, so education is an even more significant source of anxiety and concern. The pandemic exposed the situations faced by the black people in the United States, otherwise lying hidden deep.

Disregarding Diversity

One of the primary reasons behind making the Black community still lag is the continuous disregard the rest of America has towards them regarding acknowledging their very existence. Diversity and Inclusion or (D&I) is yet to be reached. The American economy was built on the principles of exploitation and occupational segregation based on people’s skin color. While several government policies and institutional practices helped create this system, the legacies of slavery still exist. As a result, conflicting and persistent racial disparities never cease to exist in jobs, wages, benefits, and almost every other estimate of economic well-being. Occupational segregation and the continued devaluation of Black employees are a direct result of intentionally racism-driven government policy. Even today, people of color remain overrepresented in the lowest-paid agricultural, domestic, and service vocations. Higher-education institutions have always been at the forefront of identifying, and taking steps to foster, D&I. Although several organizations have still tried hard to incorporate diversity and Inclusion into their existing practices, there are sizeable gaps. The college enrollment figures and completion rates for Black and Hispanic students are also much lower than their white counterparts.

Systematic Obstacles for Professional Growth

The BIPOC Community Member in the USA has always been more vulnerable in the job market. They experience higher unemployment rates and work in relatively worse jobs with lower pay and fewer benefits than whites. Moreover, they tend to work in less stable jobs than those held by white workers. For example, African American workers often see their unemployment rates go up sooner than white workers when the economy sours. Their unemployment rates also take longer to decline when the economy improves than is the case for whites — a phenomenon often described as “last hired, first fired.” Moreover, unemployed Black workers look longer to find and secure a new job than do white workers.

A Persistent Growth Rate of the Racial Wealth Gap

African American families need wealth to get increased access to good opportunities to educate themselves, find good jobs, and consequently for a better wealth sourcing. For instance, wealth increases the likelihood of people being able to support education for themselves and their children and being able to move to areas with more and better jobs. Yet African American families own much less wealth than whites, and the gap has only widened recently. On average, Black families now own about one-fifth of the total wealth, including the imputed wealth of defined benefit pensions owned by whites. Again, this has affected their ability to find better education opportunities even though elementary leave aside the higher education scenario.

The African Americans still face persistently higher unemployment rates and have less access to a good education than whites. Only about 1.9% of tech executives and 5.3% of tech professionals are African-American. The Black representatives and senators account for 9% of the U.S. Congress. All this has a cascading impact on access to education, economic development, quality of schools, infrastructure spending, and others. Thus, it is high time that these alarming issues are dealt with sincerity so that all Black people in America witness the dream of change they have been waiting for to become a reality.

Chris Dawkins
Chief Operating Officer at E-Log Plus
The Ohio University
San Antonio, Texas