"African-American and Latino students continue to lag behind white students in academic achievement. If that gap had been closed during the past 25 years, the US economy would have grown by $310 billion to $525 billion, a new report says."
"Achievement gaps in the United States impose “the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession,” the report concludes.
It suggests that US economy would have gained:
- $400 billion to $670 billion – or 3 to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) – if students from homes with incomes below $25,000 had risen academically to the level of those above $25,000.
- $310 billion to $525 billion – or 2 to 4 percent of GDP – if African-Americans and Latinos had caught up academically with whites.
- $425 billion to $700 billion – or 3 to 5 percent of GDP – if below-average states had performed at the average level.
- $1.3 trillion to $2.3 trillion – or 9 to 16 percent of GDP – if the US performed at the level of top-performing nations on PISA, an international test of 15 year olds."
“The kind of analysis McKinsey [and some others] offer are these big categories that don’t tell you where to go to fix the problem,” he says.
...where to go? INeedAPencil.com!
This article talks more about school performance and far more systemic problems, but as mentioned, big categories have been the problem. Let's start breaking down the problem. College access, here we come!
