Study: Rich School, Poor School: Education [In]equity in Louisiana
New report by Jesuit Social Research Institute reveals scope and depth of education inequality in Louisiana and presents recommendations to promote education equity.
(New Orleans, La. – October 10, 2019) A new report issued today by ’ Jesuit Social Research Institute (JSRI) centers around education inequity in Louisiana. Rich School, Poor School: Education [In]equity in Louisiana shows that the quality of public education too often depends on the level of income of the community and that education inequity harms the overall standard of living in Louisiana.
Moreover, with higher levels of poverty in black communities, the quality of public education and access to higher education and educational attainment too often hinges on the color of a student’s skin.
Authored by Nicholas E Mitchell, Ph.D., and Millicent Eib, the report helps us to understand how poverty negatively affects education throughout the periods of an individual’s educational journey, from birth to adulthood.
In his introduction to the report, JSRI Executive Director, Rev. Fred Kammer, S.J., J.D., emphasizes: “The core message — spelled out in specific policy recommendations — is that the people of Louisiana must determine to address issues ranging from economic injustice for preschoolers to elementary and secondary education quality to teacher salaries to affordability of higher education. We must tackle each of these issues if we, all together, are to progress economically and socially.”
The report includes a number of data tables for the state and/or individual school districts showing: key demographic data; academic performance data; and long term trends that reveal the impact of educational attainment on key indicators of economic security. Some key findings include:
● The child poverty rate in Louisiana is one of the highest in the nation at 27.84 percent. The poverty rate for black children in Louisiana is more than 30 percentage points higher than the rate for white children.
● 67.39 percent of Louisiana’s public school students are classified as “economically disadvantaged.”
● The data also show that only 51.06 percent of Louisiana’s children aged 3 and 4 are enrolled in an early education program.
● More black and Hispanic people have less than a high school diploma than have a bachelor’s degree and above in Louisiana.
● Those with lower levels of education generally have lower incomes, higher unemployment, and higher levels of poverty.
In his conclusion to the report, Dr. Mitchell commented, “Any disparities in education in the United States and specifically in Louisiana—whether economic or racial—should be of great concern to policymakers, educational administrators, families, and students. They are indicative of deeper systemic concerns, but chief among them must be alleviating poverty. Louisiana cannot prosper, economically and socially, so long as education is unstable due to budget constraints and clear economic and racial disparities. Bad policy initiatives created or enabled by the federal, state, and municipal governments created our current educational disparities. Good policy and practices can close those same gaps.”
The report was made possible by a generous grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.