“Meanwhile,” says civil-rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “in our own ‘progressive’ city of Minneapolis, the report showed that the shameful gap in math achievement between black and white students in K-12 is 53 percentage points, while the gap in math between brown and white students is 45 points.” ——- and progressive cities spend more per student than others by and large.

Progressive Cities Have Larger Achievement Gaps Than Conservative Cities • Progressive cities, on average, have achievement gaps in math and reading that are 15 and 13 percentage points higher than in conservative cities, respectively. •

In San Francisco, for example, 70% of white students are proficient in math, compared to only 12% of black students reaching proficiency — a 58-point gap. •

In Washington, D.C., 83% of white students scored proficient in reading compared to 23 percent of black students — a 60-point gap. •

In contrast, three of the 12 most conservative cities — Virginia Beach, Anaheim and Fort Worth — have effectively closed or even erased the gap in at least one of the academic categories we examined.

also from that study —-

Why This Matters

Though many dedicated educators and community members commit themselves every day to improving education, our most progressive cities have made very little progress towards the fundamental responsibility of helping every student reach their highest potential.

In the face of these data, progressive leaders cannot make excuses for failing to close these gaps. Our research shows that there are U.S. cities where little to no gaps exist. Those cities happen to be conservative. This leads us to expect more of progressive leaders, and our children deserve better.

School and municipal leaders in all cities, regardless of political affiliation, now have an opportunity to acknowledge these gaps and take action to change this reality.