As the new school year begins, millions of Americans head to college with the dream of earning a degree that will help them achieve financial security. But such a dream does not become a reality for everyone.

The historical structure and results overturn long-held assumptions that a good education provides people of color with a meaningful path out of poverty and second-class citizenship. In fact, new research shows that the higher people of color move up the socioeconomic ladder, the greater the income gap compared to whites.

Within schools, students of color across America are usually stuck in underresourced institutions because the communities in which they live have low tax revenues. They often suffer from limited access to information technology that enhances instruction, advanced placement courses, nutritional support, supplemental learning and recreational spaces.

Beyond K-12 education, college students of color and their families have to rely heavily on student loans to support their higher education pursuits, so if successful at the highest levels, they face long-term financial consequences. exposed to debt.

The importance of quality education cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, education alone is not enough. People of color have less income and wealth than white people.

A recent report, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and conducted by members of the team at the New School Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy, found that for workers of color, especially women of color, , reveals greater income inequality. A higher level of education, reflecting the higher stakes nature of these positions.

Related research has found that during a recession, black “professional” (college-educated) workers typically earn higher wages than white workers with similar qualifications.

Professionals of color, especially women, are not just equally educated but paid less than white male professionals. But racism and gender discrimination in hiring, promotion, and compensation have been found to create occupational segregation, forcing many qualified workers of color into lower-wage, more scarce job markets.

Other findings further heighten the structural imbalances built into our economy. A recent study shows that college-educated black workers are more likely to be unemployed than similarly educated white workers (3.5% vs. 2.2%). And his 2018 study, published by the Federal Reserve St. Louis Review, found that a white American who dropped out of high school was three times as wealthy as a black American with a college degree. became.

What all of this research makes more and more clear is that education is not the meritocracy or panacea we once believed through much of our national lore. The legacy of slavery and conquest that gave birth to the world continues to have unequal consequences in wealth and income, early learning opportunities and career readiness.

These are not issues that can be quickly resolved without significant changes in how structural barriers are removed.

In recent years, we have expanded our school choice and privatization efforts, denied the teaching of civics and factual history in schools through book bans and censorship, and through efforts to demarcate affirmative action programs in education and employment, have made conservative The faction offers a menu of suggestions and programs that actually make things worse.

What we need is no more restrictions on our prospects for life or the influence of the nation’s rapidly expanding population of color in our schools and across our economy. We need the exact opposite: new resources, new possibilities.

Many researchers and policy makers have documented long-standing inequalities in education and economic security, including federal job guarantees, publicly-supported baby bonds (or children’s trust funds), and cancellation of student loan debt. We are working on proposals to address these accesses and consequences.

Supporting such innovations in policy and practice is a matter of course for the various political persuasion leaders who are committed to improving America’s educational and economic outcomes. These are just a few of the policy options that will help ensure greater prosperity for all in order to realize the increasingly elusive American Dream. And they are ideas that will appeal to most U.S. residents for their immediate and practical benefits at a time when a clear national need for new approaches to the most vexing problems is evident.

Henry A.J. Ramos He is a Senior Fellow of the New School Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy, and a former member of the California Community College Board of Trustees.

OronamabiuPh.D., is a research affiliate of the New School Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author.