With predominantly white school districts receiving $23 billion more funding per year than predominantly non-white districts, WalletHub released its report on the Best States for Racial Equality in Education, along with expert commentary.
In order to determine which states have the most racial equality in education, WalletHub compared the 50 states across six key metrics. Our data compares the difference between white and black Americans in areas such as high school and college degrees, test scores and graduation rates. Below, you can see highlights from the report.
| Most Equality | Least Equality |
| 1. New Mexico | 41. Massachusetts |
| 2. Wyoming | 42. New Jersey |
| 3. West Virginia | 43. South Carolina |
| 4. Oregon | 44. Illinois |
| 5. Vermont | 45. Pennsylvania |
| 6. Hawaii | 46. Nebraska |
| 7. Kentucky | 47. New York |
| 8. Texas | 48. Connecticut |
| 9. Arizona | 49. Minnesota |
| 10. Oklahoma | 50. Wisconsin |
To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-education-racial-equality/75962/
Should local authorities target policies and programs to improve educational opportunity for all? If so, what works?
“Yes, they should, and there are a lot of things that work, from tutoring programs to professional development programs that invigorate teachers and school leaders. One broad principle of school improvement to inform educational policy is the importance of early investment in reading and other foundational skills because when kids get behind early, it creates a self-perpetuating cycle of challenges. Another principle is that the social side of schooling is just as important as the academic. Social problems often get in the way of academic success. For example, extracurriculars are not merely a “garnish,” they are central to the school experience. However, even as we have good things to invest in, we cannot hold schools accountable for solving all of the problems in our communities or society. Indeed, social problems constrain schools and make it more difficult for educators to be effective.”
Sean Kelly – Professor, University of Pittsburgh
“Education finance strategies to address what students need would better improve educational opportunities for all. For example, Tennessee’s Project Star was a state-funded initiative to reduce class sizes and results included increases in student achievement in early education, improved middle school achievement, and long-term impacts such as increased earnings and positive health outcomes as adults. Reduction of class sizes required more investment of funding to hire more teachers, provide building and classroom space, support transportation, and other educational expenses. In this respect, modest reductions in classroom sizes were what was needed to improve overall educational experiences.”
Crystal Renée Chambers, J.D., Ph.D. – Professor, East Carolina University
How does the racial wealth gap affect educational opportunities?
“One example of how racial wealth gaps impact educational opportunities would include how redlining practices in previous generations impacted where families, especially Black families, could purchase homes. The associated residential segregation has led to differences in home price appreciation and thus the ability for more substantial intergenerational transmission of wealth that is commonplace in white communities. Relatedly, even now, the historical differences in home prices have impacts on current educational expenditures since most spending on public education comes from local and state tax revenues. Lower revenues result from lower home values, which then often show up in differences in spending, as well as differences in the ability to pass or fund bonds to support new school construction or substantial capital improvements.”
Shaun M. Dougherty – Professor, Boston College; Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University
“The racial wealth gap affects what kinds of schools [students can] attend and how they are tracked within those schools. Students from historically marginalized communities are not often given access to better or more well-funded schools which are in wealthier parts of cities. As a result, they may not be coming into college with advanced AP credit, or they may be tracked into skills-based programs or the military. That is fine if students want to do that kind of work or join the military, but they should be presented with options. They may not also have access to coaching programs for things like the SAT which can give them an edge in applying to colleges. Furthermore, for some communities, it is also unthinkable that you would leave the family and go out of state to college, yet alone pay for out-of-state college. Financial literacy about student aid and loans in particular often is lacking. Additionally, we do not think about affirmative action programs that already are in place for many wealthy and white individuals through things like legacy admissions, which reserve spaces in incoming classes for children of alumni.”
Bernadette Calafell, Ph.D. – Professor; Department Chair of Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, Gonzaga University
Have the recent years widened the existing inequalities in education?
“K-12 public education is very specific to state and local contexts. During the pandemic, many communities were seriously impacted by school closures and distance learning. For example, many rural communities in the U.S. still lack access to broadband internet which meant those children missed a significant amount of learning while schools were closed relative to their peers who had access to the internet and participated in distance learning. Widening inequalities have also emerged because of state school finance policies. While some states provide adequate funding for districts serving low-income communities (e.g., New York, New Jersey, Wyoming), other states do not (e.g., Texas, Alabama, Georgia) resulting in serious and growing inequalities that impact teacher pay, teacher retention, and achievement outcomes for students.”
David DeMatthews – Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin
“There are multiple yardsticks for assessing educational inequality, from test scores to course-taking experiences to the educational attainment of high school and college degrees. And there are multiple ways to conceptualize inequality. Overall, educational inequality is quite ‘sticky,’ as measured for example by test scores. Then too, there have been some great success stories, like the increasing rate at which students take advanced math and science courses. The most recent trends reflect the upheaval of the Covid Pandemic. I think we will learn that educators responded really expertly to the sudden demands of Covid, but the outcome was still bad. Overall, a basic principle of educational inequality is that schools are less unequal places than the rest of society, so the more intense we can make schooling, the more we can offer kids the chance to be at school, and in high-quality after-school programs, the better off we will be.”
Sean Kelly – Professor, University of Pittsburgh
About the Author New York Trend is a weekly news publication that focuses on issues and lifestyles of the African & Caribbean American communities throughout the New York metropolitan area and Nassau and Suffolk Counties of Long Island. It is a respected and well recognized news publication that has been in existence since 1989. Owner, Publisher and Executive Director, Dr. Teresa Taylor Williams has been at the helm of this award-winning publication since its inception. New York Trend continues to be the only black woman-owned, metropolitan newspaper in New York and Long island. New York Trend is the largest black-owned newspaper throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties. |