Spring 2017: Bits ‘N Pieces

Did You Know?

• Millennials earn 20% less (after accounting for inflation) than Baby Boomers did at the same stage of life.¹
• Millennials with a degree have better paying jobs, are more likely to own a home, and have more retirement savings than their non-college graduate peers, the report finds.²
• While income has gone down for young people across the board, white millennials are still earning significantly more than their African-American and Latino peers.²
• In addition, young people’s net wealth declined by 56 percent in the span of 25 years, partly due to the rising cost of a college education.²
• The earnings gap between college grads and everyone else has reached its widest point on record.³
• College graduates, on average, earned 56 percent more than high school grads in 2015.³
• Non-college grads have experienced an overall 3% decline in income. (EPI/AP)
• Just two-thirds of high school-only grads ages 25 through 64 were employed in 2015, down from 73 percent in 2007.³
• High school-only grads are less likely to own homes. 64 percent are current homeowners compared with 77 percent of bachelor’s degree holders.³
• College grads are more likely to contribute to 401(k) style retirement plans even when both groups had similar incomes.³

Rural Advantage (taken from the December 29, 2016 StarTribune article Opportunity seeded in small towns by Adam Belz)

• Rural Minnesota has better schools than the U.S. average.
• Rural Minnesota has less income inequality that the U.S. average.
• Of the 100 best U.S. counties in which to grow up poor, 77 are in the Midwest. Most of those are in farm-country.
• Children from low and middle-income families in rural areas are more likely to reach the middle class than their urban counterparts.
• Children that grow up in small, rural towns are less likely to grow up in single-parent households.

Options and Opportunities

• White children do worse in poor, segregated places.
• Children of color do better in integrated places.
• Overall, children do best if they grow up where different economic classes live together.
• In cities, the rich and poor live largely separate lives.
• In the country everyone grows up together.

Typical adult incomes based on area (StarTribune, based on a Harvard study)

• $49,400 typical adult income of those who grew up poor in Red Lake County.
• $30,200 typical adult income of those who grew up poor in Hennepin County.

Costs of Childrearing (U.S. Department of Agriculture projections as reported by Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press)

• It will cost parents of children born in 2015 an average of $13,000 annually to raise those children or about $233,610 for 17 years.
• Housing accounts for about one third of that cost.
• The costs went up 3% last year, outpacing inflation.
• The costs are higher in urban areas than they are in rural areas.
• Lower-income families are expected to spend around $174,690 per child from birth through 17; higher-income families will spend an average $372,210.
• These costs do not include college.
• According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2016–2017 school year was $33,480 at private colleges, $9,650 for state residents at public colleges, and $24,930 for out-of-state residents attending public universities.

FYI

The federally mandated state accountability law, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) deadline has been extended for Minnesota. MDE will be submitting a draft for approval in September of 2017.

Quotes and Quotables

Rural results

• “This out-migration of our kids is actually a really good thing. You don’t necessarily get upward mobility in the community you’re raised in. You get upward mobility because your community raised you well.” – Ben Winchester, University of Minnesota Extension school sociologist
• “The rural areas seem to produce really good outcomes for kids from low-income families.” – Raj Chetty, Stanford economics

Connections

• “Love has nothing to do with what I get. It has to do with what I give.” – Bertice B. Berry American sociologist, author, lecturer, and educator
• “No one can stop you but you.” – Walter Bond, former University of Minnesota and professional basketball player
• “Confidence is arrogance under control.” – Walter Bond, former University of Minnesota and professional basketball player

Random Fun Facts

• Pteronophobia is the fear of being tickled by feathers!
• Cherophobia is the fear of fun.
• When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red.
• A flock of crows is known as a murder.
• “Facebook Addiction Disorder” is a mental disorder identified by Psychologists.
• Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.
• After reading this post you will not recognize that the brain doesn’t recognize the second ‘the’.
• If you somehow found a way to extract all of the gold from the bubbling core of our lovely little planet, you would be able to cover all of the land in a layer of gold up to your knees. •

1. USA Today, January 13, 2016
2. Jim Tanner/Reuters analysis of Federal Reserve data, January 14, 2017
3. Economic Policy Institute data as reported by Christopher S. Rugaber, Associated Press as reported in the January 13, StarTribune