There is no question that the wealth gap between white Americans and African-Americans has remained stubbornly consistent since 1960. Even with all of the Civil Rights legislation that has passed including the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1968 and 1991, which outlawed discrimination based on color and race in employment, strengthened voting rights, desegregated schools, and banned discrimination as it pertains to the buying, financing or renting of housing, the gap has shown very little change. According to a 2019 study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the average net worth of the average white family was 7 times greater than the average black family in 1962. By 2016 the gap was still 6.5 times. With all the government programs designed to help level the playing field, why so little progress?
Both liberals and conservatives tend to start this conversation with education. However, conservative and libertarian thinkers often are deemed to lack some credibility in this discussion. Southern Democrats in particular supported slavery prior to the Civil War, supported Jim Crow laws after it, supported racial segregation, and opposed civil rights legislation well into the 1970s. Many of these Democrats switched their allegiance to the Republican party in response to the more liberal platforms of the Truman, Kennedy and Johnson administrations. These newer Republicans joined the coalition that helped get Ronald Reagan elected in 1980 and as a result of their participation, Democrats have made sure that the stain of racism has never been completely removed from the modern Republican Party. However, there are some bright minds on the right who take this social challenge seriously and have some creative ideas. Their ideas shouldn’t be discounted simply because the last of the segregationists called themselves Republicans.
One idea from the right that is typically rejected by the left is expanding school choice. Again, conservatives have a checkered past in this regard as thousands of private schools and academies opened in reaction to the Brown v Board of Education ruling in 1954 and subsequent efforts to desegregate schools across the South. Even though the motives of those who founded those schools and the parents who moved their children out of the public schools are pretty obvious, this historical fact should not be relevant to a sincere discussion as to whether or not broader school choice options made available to minority children, particularly poor urban minority children, would help them increase their chances of pursuing more challenging and economically rewarding careers.
The American higher education system is the envy of the world. You’ll see foreign students at virtually every campus as parents around the globe opt to send their students to the U.S. to earn bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. At the same time American K-12 education is considered mediocre at best compared to other industrialized nations. I posit that the primary difference is that aspiring college students can choose the school that best fits their preferred learning environment and offers coursework that aligns with their career ambitions. K-12 education is primarily paid for by local taxes and students must attend the school that the government assigns them to or their parents must cough-up not only the tax burden but extra money to fund private school tuition.
I have spoken with entrepreneurs who have told me that if the government would pay them the same dollar amount per student they are currently spending, they could easily build and operate better schools and they would target lower-income communities rather than try to compete with the elite private schools already preferred by the wealthy. I believe them.
Liberals argue that they simply don’t have enough money, particularly in urban schools dominated by poor, minority children and that the suburban schools receive more funding based on flawed funding formulas and are subsidized by wealthier, mostly white parents. Their argument is accurate in that funding for local government-run schools is often unfair, however their solution is as flawed as the funding formulas. Take Washington DC schools as an example. According to Educationdata.org DC spent an average of $22,759 per student in 2018, second only to the state of New York ($24,000 per student). 88% of the students attending DC schools are African American. Ranked 50th in spending was Utah at $7,600 per student. However, DC schools are ranked 41st by Wallet Hub and 49th by Forbes based on a variety of criteria. Utah schools rank 18th by Wallet Hub, 30th by Forbes and 21st according to US News and World Report. Sounds like Utah taxpayers are getting a much better bang for their education tax dollar than DC and New York residents are.
Likewise, Virginia is in the top 10 in most rankings but is 25th in spending at only $12,000 per student. How can Virginia get such good results spending half what is spent in DC or New York? I am not convinced that simply throwing money at the schools as they do in DC and New York will automatically translate to better education outcomes. The power of competition has driven our higher education institutions to pursue excellence. The monopoly of the local school district has given us what monopolies often do, mediocrity.
Government exerts almost total control over K-12 education and curriculum design but very little control over colleges and universities, even state schools. Voucher programs and charter schools seem a logical direction for education alternatives that will serve minority children better.