EXPANDING THE BLACK MIDDLE CLASS

students to cover the costs of tuition for trade programs and certi cates, and associate and bachelor’s degrees at 26 Michigan colleges. e program is aimed at helping the region achieve a 60 percent post-secondary attainment goal and to cut the racial equity gap in half by 2030.

Currently, more than 2,000 students are enrolled in Detroit Promise, with 500 new students enrolling in the program last fall, down from about 700 each of the two years prior, said Gregory Handel, vice president, education and talent for the Detroit Regional Chamber.

e drop has been entirely driven by enrollment declines at the community college level as students have opted for work instead of school, as wages for entry-level work went up, he said. Four-year university enrollment, however, has grown to about 400 students from 230 a year before the pandemic.

It was funded for its rst seven years by the Michigan Excellence in Education Foundation, a partnership of business, foundation/nonpro t and government, with some additional funding from the Detroit chamber’s endowments. Over the last few years, funding responsibility has largely shifted to the Detroit Promise Zone Authority, which captures a portion of state assessed property taxes for education. But the foundation continues to fundraise for additional student programs, Handel said.

More recently, Wayne State Uni-

Less 80 70 60 50 40 30 0 than high school graduate High school graduate* Some college/associate degree Bachelor’s degree or higher

The growth in Black households with a bachelor’s degree or higher from 11% in 2010 to 16% in 2021.

For the same time period, white households grew from 17% to 35% and Hispanic households grew from 5% to 10%.

$55,726

The median income in 2021 for a Detroit resident with a graduate degree or higher compared to $48,877 for a bachelor’s degree, $31,425 for some college or associate degree and $26,724 for a high school graduate.

NOTE: DATA NOT COLLECTED IN 2020. *OR EQUIVALENT. MAY EQUAL MORE THAN 100% DUE TO ROUNDING SOURCE: DETROIT FUTURE CITY ‘10 ‘21 ‘11‘12‘13‘14‘15‘16‘17‘18‘19 versity announced the WSU Guarantee to provide free tuition for Michigan students who attend the Detroit-based university. Both programs provide “last dollar” support to eliminate tuition costs for eligible students by rounding out state and federal assistance. ose types of programs are needed to increase access to post-secondary credentials and higher-paying jobs. But so, too, is the need to eliminate systemic racism preventing people of color from moving into well-paying jobs once they’ve attained post-secondary credentials, Goss said.

Black and Latino/Hispanic workers are employed in well-paying, fast-growing occupations at lower rates than their white and Asian counterparts, according to the Growth Occupations report DFC released last month with Brookings.

Attracting companies

In its quest to bring new employers and more jobs to Southeast Michigan, the Detroit Regional Partnership has honed in on three growth sectors that could tap into the region’s talent base, President and CEO Maureen Krauss said: mobility, smart manufacturing, and corporate and professional services like banking and information technology.

Over the last year, DRP has attracted 33 companies to its 11-county footprint in Southeast Michigan, all in one of those three sectors, Krauss said. Nine of them are in Wayne County. Collectively, they’ve created roughly 5,000 jobs and over $2.4 billion in new investment.

“We have the right talent, supply chain and support for those companies to succeed here,” Krauss said.

“I think that bodes well for the future of the Black middle class in Detroit.” e region has strong engineering and smart manufacturing talent and

See OPPORTUNITY on Page 10

4 Ways To Build The Middle Class

Through focus groups in 2018, Detroit Future City heard from about 100 people who had moved out of Detroit to the suburbs on what could have kept them in the city and might help build the Black middle class:

 Workforce development and job attraction e orts to move people into middle-class earning brackets and provide more of those jobs in the city. Programs such as Detroit at Work and Motor City Contractor Fund aim to train workers in companies and industries to expand their skills.

 Eliminating ongoing disparities in mortgage originations for Black applicants to help ensure opportunities to create generational wealth through home ownership.

 Safe and desirable neighborhoods that are walkable, with public spaces (gardens, parks, etc.), quality schools, su cient grocery stores and other retail. The Thriving Neighborhoods Fund, for example, provides funding for programming within such spaces as parks.