Kelly, Patrick J. National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, “ed.gov.” Last modified November 2005. Accessed March 16, 2014. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED512586.pdf.

In order for people to enjoy a middle class lifestyle, they must attain at least some education beyond high school. This paper focuses mainly on the economic reasons that the United States needs to improve educational inequality in response to a growing minority population. The U.S. is no longer the most highly educated nation in the world. In addition, minorities usually make less than whites with the same level of education, which could have a negative affect on total U.S. personal income in the future if nothing is done to change it.

The topic of this research paper is the impact that educational inequality will have on the economy. The research question is, “How will the changing U.S. population (to include more minorities) and educational inequality affect the U.S. economy?” There are several types of data used to answer this complex question. These data types include mean earnings by degree level, the racial/ethnic make-up of the U.S. population that is eligible to be in the workforce, the projected ethic/racial changes by age in U.S. population, minority populations by state, percentage of population aged 25-64 by race/ethnicity, trends in U.S. educational attainment, U.S. educational attainment trends compared to the trends of other countries, recent changes in U.S. education levels, educational representation by race/ethnicity, average annual incomes by race/ethnicity and gender and the difference between incomes by race/ethnicity for 25- to 64-year-olds, changes and projected changes in overall U.S. educational attainment, including projected change graphs organized by state, and projected change in personal income per capita between 2000 and 2020.

The authors used population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, high school graduation data from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), and enrollment and completion data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) IPEDS Fall Enrollment and Completion Surveys, the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 Public Use Microdata Sample Files (5% samples for each state), NCES IPEDS Graduation Rate Survey collection, U.S. Census Bureau population projections by state, age, and race/ethnicity (adjusted as needed by the authors).

The data collected was graphed and studied for patterns and disparities. The authors inform readers that “change in personal income was calculated by applying the income disparities reflected in the 2000 Census data to the projected population in 2020 (by age and race/ethnicity). To arrive at more accurate projections of state personal income, the income disparities (in 2000) by race/ethnicity within several age groups (15-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, and 65 and older) were applied to projected population changes by race/ethnicity within the same age groups. In the case of personal income, it was necessary to include all of the ages that are used to calculate personal income per capita (aged 15 and older).”

This research project is extremely interesting because it looks at educational inequality in the U.S., but it also looks at the economic effects of this inequality. This study used several different types of data, which made it fairly complex, but with its complexity comes its thorough exploration of every factor which may have an effect on the topic. This research shows that the United States will pay a price if it doesn’t work on improving educational inequality and inequality of income for minorities. It is a call for action which also provides reasons why everyone should want to help improve this issue.