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Closing the Education Gap
Benefits and Costs
How much would it cost and what would the benefits be if blacks and Hispanics graduated from high school, went to college, and graduated from college at the same rate as non-Hispanic whites? The answer to this important question for the future of the nation is explored in this report. The costs of education would be high, increasing by about 20 percent in California and 10 percent in the rest of the nation. But the benefits, in the form of savings in public health and welfare expenditures and increased tax revenues from higher incomes, would be even higher. Indeed, the added costs of providing more education to minorities would be recouped well within the lifetime of taxpayers called upon to make the additional investments. The nation is experiencing a rapid immigration driven increase in the share of Hispanics in the school age population. Failure to increase the educational attainment of this group would result in growing shares of new labor-force entrants having levels of education lower than those prevailing today; in increased income disparities between blacks and Hispanics, on one hand, and Asians and non-Hispanic whites, on the other; and in increased public expenditures for social and health programs for generations to come.
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Contents
Chapter One:
Introduction
Chapter Two:
The Public Benefits of Education
Chapter Three:
The RAND Education Simulation Model
Chapter Four:
Effects of Demographic Change on Educational Attainment
Chapter Five:
Costs and Benefits of Closing the Educational Attainment Gap for Blacks and Hispanics
Chapter Six:
Effects of Immigration on Education
Chapter Seven:
Discussion and Next Steps
Appendix A:
Data Used to Estimate Public Program Benefits
Appendix B:
Estimated Relationships Between Educational Attainment and Spending on Social Programs
Appendix C:
The Elderly: a Special Case
Appendix D:
Savings in Program Expenditures and Increases in Tax Revenues and Disposable Income Associated with Increased Educational Attainment
Appendix E:
Education Flow Rates
Appendix F:
Annual Flows for Births, Deaths, and Immigration
Appendix G:
Education Cost Estimates
Appendix H:
Adult Population in 1990 and Projected to 2015
Appendix I:
Estimates of Costs and Benefits
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