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03 August, 2020
Gerald Chertavian, Founder and CEO of Year Up, discusses the systematic problem our country faces in addressing income inequality and the role that COVID-19 has played in intensifying the problem.
In an interview with Dr. Lori Esposito Murray, President of the Committee for Economic Development at The Conference Board, Chertavian focuses the conversation on critical steps our country can take in reducing the opportunity divide for impoverished communities and people of color.
“At the end of the day, education is our most critical opportunity. If we are going to close the opportunity divide, [we must] insist that all of our children are getting quality education,” said Chertavian. “In the most recent research from Stanford, it has shown that the achievement gap is more related to poverty than race. Segregation, which corelates by race to poverty, has disproportionate effects of communities of color because they tend to be in high poverty schools. High poverty schools get less resources in education and less experienced teachers.”
The CEO Forum series features CEOs from across American industry who focus on actionable insights to address underlying challenges of economic opportunity, childhood education, health care, workforce skills development, workplace equality and corporate governance.