Too Many Children Have Little Hope for Future, Fed's Bostic Says
Too Many Children Have Little Hope for Future, Fed's Bostic Says
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Too many children from low-income communities don’t dare to dream of a brighter future and need to aspire for more, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said.
“Try to change the notion of expectations for young people,” he told a community development conference Tuesday hosted by Purpose Built Communities in Atlanta. “I have been struck by how many people from lower-income communities, when you ask kids who are 9 and 10 what you are hoping to be, it’s a secretary; it’s a janitor. It’s not an astronaut; it’s not an attorney; it’s not a surgeon.’’
As a PhD economist before becoming the first black president of a Fed bank in 2017, Bostic focused on housing and community development issues.
“They have self-censored their hopes and dreams at very early ages. If they are not aspiring then, when they get to 16 and 17, when they start applying for college if they are going to do that -- I know so many people, their stretch college was Fort Valley State. It wasn’t Georgia, wasn’t Georgia Tech, wasn’t Emory.”
Fort Valley, in Georgia, is “a fine institution but that is constraining the set of networks you are going to have, the set of relationships you are going to have. It really does limit what the upside potential is,” Bostic said.
“We have got to do better in making sure all of our children dream, like really dream, so when they get to those crossroads, they try to stretch and do more. When they do that, a whole bunch of them are going to succeed.’’
To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Matthews in Atlanta at smatthews@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alister Bull at abull7@bloomberg.net, Vince Golle
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