By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Here’s another report about how nonwhite children are at a disadvantage.

Kindergarten unreadiness leads to workforce unpreparedness. “Overall, only three out of every ten incoming kindergartners were fully prepared for school as they began their education in the fall of 2019,” said healthcare human relations executive Joni Duncan, citing the Illinois State Board of Education’s figures. “But it is more pronounced among chlidren of color: only 23 percent of Black youngsters were fully ready for kindergarten, 17 percent of Latino children, and only fourteen percent of English learners.”

Duncan appeared at a virtual news conference hosted by the Illinois division of ReadyNation.

“Joblessness is historically higher among people of color,” said Rockford aerospace engineer Rudy Valdez, “but it soared as the covid pandemic set in this spring, to over twenty percent unemployment for Black and Latino workers statewide, compared to thirteen percent for white workers.”

Valdez says from 2017 to 2019, for every dollar whites earned, Blacks earned 75 cents, Latinos 68 cents, and Native Americans 58 cents.

http://bit.ly/equity-IL

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]