Racial Wealth Gap Persists Despite Degree, Study Says

[THEANGEL&THEGAMBLER]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/b...pite-degree-study-says.html?ref=business&_r=1

Even with tuition shooting up, the payoff from a college degree remains strong, lifting lifelong earnings and protecting many graduates like a Teflon coating against the worst effects of economic downturns.

But a new study has found that for black and Hispanic college graduates, that shield is severely cracked, failing to protect them from both short-term crises and longstanding challenges.

“The long-term trend is shockingly clear,” said William R. Emmons, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and one of the authors of the report. “White and Asian college grads do much better than their counterparts without college, while college-grad Hispanics and blacks do much worse proportionately.”

A college degree has long been recognized as a great equalizer, a path for minorities to help bridge the economic chasm that separates them from whites. But the report, scheduled to be released on Monday, raises troubling questions about the ability of a college education to narrow the racial and ethnic wealth gap.

“Higher education alone cannot level the playing field,” the report concludes.

Economists emphasize that college-educated blacks and Hispanics over all earn significantly more and are in a better position to accumulate wealth than blacks and Hispanics who do not get degrees. Graduates’ median family income in 2013 was at least twice as high, and their median family wealth (which includes resources like a home, car and retirement account) was 3.5 to 4 times greater than that of nongraduates.

But while these college grads had more assets, they suffered disproportionately during periods of financial trouble.

From 1992 to 2013, the median net worth of blacks who finished college dropped nearly 56 percent (adjusted for inflation). By comparison, the median net worth of whites with college degrees rose about 86 percent over the same period, which included three recessions — including the severe downturn of 2007 through 2009, with its devastating effect on home prices in many parts of the country. Asian graduates did even better, gaining nearly 90 percent.

That notion applies equally to excessive college and housing loans, they say. “How you finance an asset is just as important as the asset itself,” said Ray Boshara, director of the Center for Household Financial Stability at the St. Louis Fed bank.

Blacks and Hispanics are also less likely than whites to inherit money or receive help from their parents to cover a tuition bill or a down payment on a house.

William A. Darity Jr., a professor of public policy at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, points out that a family headed by a black college graduate has less wealth on average than a family headed by a white high school dropout.

The lack of family wealth is pivotal to understanding the racial economic gap, he argues.

While the researchers from the St. Louis Fed, when asked, played down the importance of financial support from family when explaining their results, Mr. Darity said he believed that family aid helped individuals avoid the type of risky big-ticket borrowing that ensnared so many Hispanic and black graduates.

“Prior family wealth is the key,” Mr. Darity explained in an email, noting that it “shapes both income-generating opportunities and the capacity to

 

[mr.africa]

we are all human beings
if we stopped talking or caring about race,then there'd be equality and no racism
i am white and i grew up poor and race didn't play a factor in me making it out,why can't blacks!! (college loans,housing loans,etc...)

 

[OfTheCross]

Eh...

This ain't so much about race as it is about raising your kids.

Black and Hispanic parents gotta get more involved (generally speaking) at an early stage in their children's education.

Challenge them and prepare them as best possible. Then when they get to college they may be better equipped to handle STEM courses, which pay, as opposed to Arts courses, which pay less

 

[Yapdatfool]

Eh...

This ain't so much about race as it is about raising your kids.

Black and Hispanic parents gotta get more involved (generally speaking) at an early stage in their children's education.

Challenge them and prepare them as best possible. Then when they get to college they may be better equipped to handle STEM courses, which pay, as opposed to Arts courses, which pay less

You cant be serious with this post.

Don't you think that those non white/asian parents WERE involved early enough to propel those kids to go to college as adults?

This story isn't even about the TYPE of majors folks are getting (which if they ever did a study on that, bet you whites/asians make more money than everybody else with the same degree/major)

There's already been studies showing that whites who graduate HS fare better financially than blacks who graduate college, but blacks/hispanics raising them kids is the determining factor (even though they enter college as legal adults). But education is the x-factor, being tens of thousands of dollars in debt with little job prospects no matter what major/degree you choose to have as a black/hispanic person is still better than not going at all .

And it ain't about race or stereotyping ?

 

[QamYasharahla]

Let's look at the curses from Deuteronomy 28:

29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

33 The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:

38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.

43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.

44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

 

[QamYasharahla]

 

[OfTheCross]

You cant be serious with this post.

Don't you think that those non white/asian parents WERE involved early enough to propel those kids to go to college as adults?

This story isn't even about the TYPE of majors folks are getting (which if they ever did a study on that, bet you whites/asians make more money than everybody else with the same degree/major)

There's already been studies showing that whites who graduate HS fare better financially than blacks who graduate college, but blacks/hispanics raising them kids is the determining factor (even though they enter college as legal adults). But education is the x-factor, being tens of thousands of dollars in debt with little job prospects no matter what major/degree you choose to have as a black/hispanic person is still better than not going at all .

And it ain't about race or stereotyping ?

Huh?

I think you read my lost wrong.

I'm saying that Blacks and Hispanics should be more.involved in their kids education early on to set them up for success..

You're responding to me as if I said the opposite