Study Shows Children From Poor Families Rarely Live Up to Potential

There could be millions of "Lost Einsteins" who could have changed the course of American life.

A new study by the Equality of Opportunity project found that there are large gaps in innovation by income, race, and gender that seem directly related to environment. The study’s author, Raj Chetty, says that the results show there could be millions of children who excel in math and science — and could become inventors who change life in America as we know it — but live in below-median income families and do not have the same opportunities as children from families in the top one percent of income distribution. Children from the top one percent of income distribution are 10 times as likely to have filed for a patent as those from below-median income families. Plus, white children are three times as likely to have filed a patent as black children.

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