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Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College
Columbia University
The Campaign for Educational Equity
The Campaign for Educational Equity
Fall 2005 Symposium on the “Social Costs of Inadequate Education”
Fall 2005 Symposium on the “Social Costs of Inadequate Education”

For more information call:
1-866-92-EQUAL

October 24th and 25th at  Alfred Lerner Hall, Columbia University

Diversity and the Demographic Dividend: Achieving Educational Equity in an Aging White Society

Presenters:

Summary:

“The United States has a vital resource that gives it an advantage over its industrialized peers, namely people. The population continues to grow, owing to high levels of immigration and fertility.”

  • U.S. school enrollment has surpassed the previous all-time high of 48.7 million set in 1970.

The school-age population bulge represents a potential demographic bonus that can help compensate for an aging population, but it can only be realized with appropriate educational investments.

  • The fastest growing cohorts are more likely to have parents with little education and lower incomes than the cohorts they are replacing
  • Census 2000 recorded the largest “minority” population in U.S. history—28% of the total—with 12% African American; 11% Hispanic; 4% Asian; and other groups combined accounting for the rest. Hispanics recently surpassed blacks as the largest minority group.
  • 35% of the school-age population is now minority, compared with 28 percent of the total population.
  • By 2030, about 40% of the U.S. population is projected to be black, Hispanic or Asian. The relatively youthful minority populations -- Hispanics in particular -- will drive future demographic growth and diversification well into the current century.

Key indicators “do not bode well for the swelling school-aged minority populations of these states.”

  • The four largest immigrant-receiving states rank in the lower half of all states based on their overall and child poverty rates as well as their high school graduation rates. In 2003 California , Florida and New York were tied for 34 th place in their child poverty rates. Texas ranked 43rd.
  • In 2000, black and Hispanic students attended segregated schools where two out of three students were poor or near poor; moreover, 88% of the students attending hyper-segregated minority schools (i.e., with less than 10% whites) were poor, compared with only 15% of students attending equally segregated white schools.
  • Schools where minorities are disproportionately concentrated are poorer, on average, than predominantly white schools. Graduation rates for central city high schools averaged 58% in 2001, compared with 73% for suburban schools.
  • The annual high school dropout rate of Hispanics remains double that of non-Hispanic whites.
  • As of 2000, the Hispanic high school graduation rate was almost three decades behind that of whites. In that year, 59% of Hispanics ages 25 and over achieved high school diplomas whereas 55% of whites did so back in 1970.
  • Only 10% of Hispanics ages 25 and over were college graduates in 2000, comparable to whites in 1970.
  • Today''''s college graduates look like the U.S. population in 1970, with whites comprising 82% of degree recipients. African Americans represent only 6% -- less than half their population share -- and Hispanics comprise only 4%, or about one-third their population share. These disparities will likely widen as the minority share of young cohorts continues to rise.

Presentation Papers