The White House is stepping up to improve the U.S. educational system for Black students.
Alexandra Alper of Reuters has reported that President Joe Biden has “signed an executive order setting up two commissions within the Department of Education to improve education for Black students.”
According to Alper, “one commission will be assigned to raise awareness around challenges for Black students and increase Black children’s access to high-quality early childhood programs, among other projects.”
As a companion to that commission, President Biden has also asked for the creation of a panel that will track the educational challenges of Black students, making recommendations on how Biden might be able to help improve their educational equity and economic opportunity.
“The executive order seeks to make good on a Biden campaign promise to expand access to high-quality education and tackle racial inequity in the education system,” Alper said. “School districts with high concentrations of Black students are much more likely to be underfunded than districts where a majority of students are white, and face much wider funding gaps, with an average deficit of more than $5,000 per student.”
Based on current data, higher education for Black students continues to be a struggle, with just 26% of Black Americans aged 25 and older attaining a bachelor’s degree, compared to the national average of 36%.
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