Low-income students have never had the same advantages as their wealthier peers, and a new study proves that disparity still exists in the 21st century. According to The New York Times, only 34 percent of the highest-achieving high school seniors coming from families in the bottom quarter of the income distribution were attending one of the nation's most selective colleges. In contrast, 78 percent of similar students from the top quarter of income distribution were. But programs financed by wealthy benefactors in NYC are trying to change that:
"In New York City, where a neighborhood like Bushwick, in Brooklyn, can seem like a satellite campus of Wesleyan and a prewar apartment building on the Upper East Side can feel like an Ivy League dormitory for 46-year-olds, there has been considerable philanthropic attention, of the kind other cities ought to envy, paid to finding the most gifted low-income students and putting them on a similar path."
Thanks to programs like Prep for Prep, Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, low-income students are receiving a fair chance at a good education:
"Programs like LEDA and S.E.O. are popular with wealthy, supremely educated donors, precisely because of outcomes like Mr. El-Bey's. Just this May, the financier Henry R. Kravis pledged $4 million in matching gifts to S.E.O."
