COVID-19’s Disproportionate Effects on Children of Color Will Challenge the Next Generation

The Urban Institute reports that the US’s population of children is becoming increasingly racially and ethnically diverse, with children of color soon to make up more than 50 percent of all kids nationwide. By about 2040, children and adults of color will become the numerical majority. But in the US, people of color have long been excluded from opportunity pathways and upward mobility. Discriminatory policies and institutional practices have created deep inequities across social and economic sectors, including education, employment, political representation, health, and the justice system. These inequities have been multiplied by the COVID-19 pandemic, jeopardizing this future generation. To ensure the social and economic development of the US, the well-being and productivity of the next generation is critical, which means focusing on the challenges facing children of color. Urban Insitute has identified three areas where COVID-19-related effects are already hurting young people’s futures. Protecting this generation will depend on rapid and expansive action by stakeholders across policy and nonprofit sectors to narrow the racial and ethnic disparities exacerbated by this pandemic. #education #racialequity