Fewer than half of all high schools in the United States offer calculusand the kids who dont have access to the math course are disproportionately students of color. That finding is among the many disparities between white students and their black and Latino peers revealed in a new report from the Education Departments Office for Civil Rights. ... Children of color are not getting the same opportunity to learn as their white classmates, Education Secretary John King said during a call with reporters. When access to advanced classes is unequal, he continued, the country suffers economically because people with lower levels of education tend to earn less and are even more likely to end up in prison. Separate research also suggests that students who take advanced math and science classes are more likely to earn degrees in those fields than kids who do not. Thats important because where there isnt a massive need for, say, English majors, engineering and healthcare companies are hiring. So the disparities evident in the high-school years continue to play out in higher education and the workforce more broadly.
