Education and the racial divide

Studies show that many poor but bright children do not receive good advice about applying for college and scholarships, or do not receive help after starting college.
In recent years, 11 percent of children from the poorest families, in the USA, have earned college degrees, compared with 53 percent of children from the top fifth.
The researchers found that Hispanic and black Americans were falling behind whites and Asians in earning college degrees, making it harder for them to enter the middle class or higher.
The study highlights the powerful role that college can have in helping people change their station in life. Someone born into a family in the lowest fifth of earners who graduates from college has a 19 percent chance of joining the highest fifth of earners in adulthood and a 62 percent chance of joining the middle class or better.
The authors of the study, by scholars at the Brookings Institution in Washington and sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, warned that widening gaps in higher education between rich and poor, whites and minorities, could soon lead to a downturn in opportunities for the poorest families.
Economic mobility, the chance that children of the poor or middle class will climb up the income ladder, has not changed significantly over the last three decades.