Nearly a decade ago, in 2014, Charlotte leaders got a sobering wake-up call.
A team from Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley released the “Land of Opportunity Study,” known as the Chetty study. It said that the Charlotte region ranked 50th out of 50 among the nation’s largest metro areas for economic mobility.
This means that a child born in poverty in Charlotte had the lowest chances among the country’s largest cities of making it out of poverty.
The stark findings from the study shocked those who thought of Charlotte as a boomtown, and spurred immediate reaction from Charlotte political, business and philanthropic leaders to improve Charlotte’s status, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to expand pre-K programs, create more affordable housing, and improve overall economic mobility.
New programs, like the Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative, and new organizations, like Leading on Opportunity were formed. Charlotte government began a focus on what it calls its Corridors of Opportunity to improve underserved areas of the city, among other efforts.
Now, a decade later, Raj Chetty, the lead author of the 2014 study, is in Charlotte for UNC Charlotte’s Chancellor’s Speaker Series, and his visit gives us a chance to take stock.
After all the effort, are we better off in Charlotte than when the study came out? Where would we rank today? Have Charlotte’s efforts in improving our economic mobility had success? How would that be measured?
We’ll be joined by a panel of experts and stakeholders to talk about that and about the new work Chetty’s organization, Opportunity Insights, is doing to examine the factors that shape a child’s chances to achieve the American dream.
GUESTS:
- Mike Lamach, Charlotte Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative
- Sherri Chisolm, executive director of Leading on Opportunity
- Sarah Oppenheimer, executive director of Opportunity Insights at Harvard University
- Dr. Kendra Jason, associate professor in the department of Sociology at UNC Charlotte
WFAE is partnering with UNC Charlotte to livestream Chetty's event. More information here.
