Income Inequality

  • Students in Large Upstate Cities Performed Poorly on the Most Recent State Assessments - Source - New York State Education Department. Grades 3-8 Annual Performance Assessment. Grades 3-8 Mathematics, 2022-2023 Historically, economically disadvantaged students have performed poorly on the State's annual Student Assessments. That pattern continued in the 2022-2023 school year. On the State's Grades 3-8 mathematics examination, only 30% of students in districts…
  • Have Charter Schools In New York City Achieved their Promise? - Although charter schools have operated in New York State since 1998, their effectiveness continues to be disputed. A recent New York Times article, "New York City Schools Face a Crisis, Charter Schools Gain Students, points out, "As traditional public schools in the nation's largest system endure a perilous period of…
  • The Continuing Racial and Ethnic Income Gap in New York and the Nation - Race has been a defining aspect of American society since Europeans came to this continent. Although racial identification reflects where people's ancestors lived, not biological differences between people, it gained a connotation of superiority or inferiority as a justification for actions by dominant settlers of European descent to subjugate non-Europeans…
  • The Economic Value of College Depends upon Where You Live - College graduates enjoy a substantial income premium over those with a high school degree. In New York State, the median income in 2019 for people aged 25 or older with a Bachelor's degree was $62,699. The median income for high school graduates was only $33,491. For those with advanced degrees,…
  • With a New Governor, New York Faces Economic Challenges - For decades, New York has had substantial disparities in economic performance. Although some parts of the State are doing relatively well, much of it has declining employment, higher levels of poverty, lower household income levels, and fewer adults working than the nation. Over most of the past decade, job growth…
  • Poverty in Upstate Metropolitan Areas: Myths and Realities - We live in an era in which long-held attitudes about race have been heightened by political campaigns that attempt to mobilize fears among white voters about minority group members and immigrants.  These appeals have ranged from claims that President Obama is a Muslim who was born in Kenya and claims…
  • Covid-19: The Cost in Lost Jobs - With more than 190,000 lives lost and millions infected, Covid-19 has imposed a tragic toll on residents of the United States.  New York State was hit hard early on, and has lost 32,600 residents to the disease as of early September  But strong controls that shut down much of the…
  • Income Inequality in Metropolitan Areas - In many respects, the American economy has done extraordinarily well since the great recession of 2008. We have seen a long period of growth in employment, while unemployment has dropped to levels not seen in many decades. But this period has also seen a troubling increase in income polarization, which…
  • A Closer Look at Student Performance in Upstate City Schools - Parents in central cities seeking good educations for their children face the disconcerting reality that relatively few city school children pass standardized tests required by New York State, suggesting that the schools are failing.  In Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and Schenectady, less than 20% of students passed state required English Language Arts…
  • Education, Economic Status and Student Performance in New York School Districts - Note:  A more recent, closer look at this subject may be found here:  https://policybynumbers.com/a-closer-look-at-student-performance-in-upstate-city-schools In 1966, James S. Coleman and associates wrote the report, "Equality of Educational Opportunity," for the United States Department of Health Education and Welfare, as required by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  The report was…
  • Misconceptions About People in Poverty: Are Work Requirements Effective? - This is an expanded version of the essay, "False Stereotypes Harm People in Poverty" that appeared in the Rochester Beacon, containing additional information relating to the five largest upstate metropolitan areas. __________________________________________________ Misconceptions about people in poverty appear to drive proposed changes in social welfare policy, particularly the work requirements…
  • Misconceptions About People in Poverty: The Push for Work Requirements - Misconceptions about people in poverty appear to drive proposed changes in social welfare policy, particularly the work requirements either being promoted by the Trump Administration and discussed or implemented in several states. A fuller understanding of factors underlying the problem of poverty suggests that these policies will be counterproductive, neither…
  • The Income Gap between Men and Women: 2015 vs. 1970 - Since 1970,  inflation adjusted wage income growth has been almost nonexistent - only five percent over the 45 year period ending in 2015.  Income change in metropolitan areas in New York State has differed little from the nation.  Rochester and Buffalo were two exceptions - both had lower median real wage…
  • The Persistent Gap Between White and Black Incomes in New York - There has long been a substantial gap between the incomes of white Americans and those who describe themselves as African/American or black.  As early as 1964, with the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, the Federal and state Governments began passing laws aimed at preventing discrimination in the workplace.  Has New York seen…
  • Education, Age and Declines in Real Income Since 1970 - The economic malaise that has affected small and medium sized rust belt cities since 2000 has been widely noted.  Most have seen little or no real household income growth since then.  Much of the weak performance has been associated with the long-term decline of manufacturing employment in the region –…
  • Poverty in Upstate Metropolitan Areas – Characteristics and Change: 1999-2013 - This is a paper based partly on data previously presented on this blog site. This paper examines the incidence of poverty in upstate New York cities compared to the surrounding suburbs. The data shows that while residents of upstate suburbs enjoy incomes that are substantially higher than the national average…
  • New York’s Ineffective Business Tax Incentives - In 1987, New York State enacted legislation to create an Economic Development Zones Program, modelled after the enterprise zones concept, championed by Congressman Jack Kemp.  Proponents argued that by reducing taxes in specific geographic areas with high concentrations of poverty and unemployment, existing firms would be more likely to create…
  • The Shrinking Middle Class in New York State – Cities and Suburbs - Pew Research has been releasing a series of studies showing that the percentage of Americans who have middle class incomes has been declining.  The most recent of these is  America's Shrinking Middle Class:  A Close Look at Changes Within Metropolitan Areas.  The report received extensive coverage in many newspapers, including the New…
  • More on Race, Income and Student Achievement - A few months ago, I wrote about the link between economic disadvantage and poor student performance.  I looked at the performance of students on the State's annual student assessment for grades 3 to 8, and found that the percentage of economically disadvantaged students in schools and school districts accounted for…
  • Racial Divisions in Upstate Metropolitan Neighborhoods - In my last posting I described income differences in 800 upstate metropolitan neighborhoods in Albany, Erie, Monroe, Oneida, Onondaga, Rensselaer and Schenectady Counties.  The data comes from the United States Census Bureau which divides the nation into census tracts, the most detailed level publically tabulated. Overall, there are 73,000 census tracts…