The Washington Post, January 24, 2020: What shapes a kid’s opportunities? Researchers say look to the neighborhood.
Researchers at Brandeis University culled data from the nation’s 72,000 census tracts to understand how a child’s neighborhood influences his or her opportunities over time. What they found were stark divides along racial and ethnic lines, as well as glaring “opportunity gaps” within many metro areas, even among children raised in adjoining neighborhoods.
“It wasn’t clear to us that each metro area would be so different in that regard,” said Clemens Noelke, who co-authored the report. “What we see across the country is something that’s structural about American society.”
Researchers said they were especially struck — though not entirely surprised — by the opportunity gaps between White children and children of color. Across the nation’s largest metro areas, 46% of Black children and 32% of Hispanic children live in “very low” opportunity neighborhoods. Moreover, Black children are 7.6 times and Hispanic children 5.3 times more likely to live in very low-opportunity neighborhoods than White children.
Acevedo-Garcia and Noelke said their research should persuade policymakers, especially at the local level, to take a hard look at inequality in their communities and consider how policies can create opportunity barriers. That can range from housing policies that fuel racial segregation to a city’s strategic planning budget.
“Anyone that wants to walk away from this issue, and think it’s fine and is not going to affect all of us, is making a really bad assessment of the situation,” Acevedo-Garcia said.
