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Money, Power, Inequality
Examining the racial wealth gap.
THE GREAT DIVIDE

To close the achievement gap, some schools take a holistic approach

Experts argue school districts can’t close achievement gaps until they remove, or at least minimize, the societal obstacles that hold so many students back. But can schools alone do enough?
THE GREAT DIVIDE

Meet the families whose lawsuit forced BPS to integrate

Some of the plaintiffs behind the 1974 decision to desegregate Boston’s schools were shielded from the limelight and never publicly spoke of their reasons for signing on to the lawsuit – until now.

Broken Promises, Unfulfilled Hope

The Boston Globe explores the legacy of Boston’s busing era.
THE GREAT DIVIDE

They sued Boston’s public schools for better education for Black children. Instead, they got busing.

In their quest for better neighborhood schools for Black children, Earline Pruitt and 13 other families, including 43 children, inadvertently landed at the center of one of the most contentious civil rights battles in Boston’s history.
THE GREAT DIVIDE

To close the achievement gap, some schools take a holistic approach

Experts argue school districts can’t close achievement gaps until they remove, or at least minimize, the societal obstacles that hold so many students back. But can schools alone do enough?

Recent Globe projects

Explore the project: Beyond the Gilded Gate
People in and around Boston are being challenged, in ways never before, to address the region's unprecedented housing crisis. The Globe Spotlight Team probed this question and found yet another crisis: One of consensus and will.

Nightmare in Mission Hill
The story of how a murder in Mission Hill — the Carol Stuart shooting — terrorized and wounded a community of innocent people.

Who was Peter Faneuil? A Bostonian, merchant, philanthropist — and slave trader.
Most Bostonians know little about the man for whom Faneuil Hall is named, who enriched himself by trafficking in human beings. Should knowing that history change the way the city remembers him?

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Money, Power, Inequality

Examining the racial wealth gap

About

Why, after years of new policies and good intentions, is Boston still so unequal? And what can we do about it? The Money, Power, Inequality team will zero in on the racial wealth gap and why it persists.

That includes a fuller exploration of our history of inequities: the role of Boston in the slave trade and tracing the systems and policies that have enabled the racial wealth gap to endure.

We’ll explore the societal structures — both intentional and accidental — that stand in the way of wealth equality, from housing policies to a higher education system that favors those who already have the resources. It also means showing how the wealth gap hurts us all, and how closing it doesn’t mean that others lose out. We will focus on illuminating big and bold solutions. And we’ll do this work in conversation with our readers and the community.

The Money, Power, Inequality team

Kris Hooks
Editor-in-chief
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Milton Valencia
Deputy Editor
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Lauren Booker
Digital Editor
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Vince Dixon
Senior Newsroom Developer, data journalist
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Esmy Jimenez
Senior reporter
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Jeneé Osterheldt
Deputy Managing Editor for culture, talent, and development
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Anica Butler
Deputy Managing Editor for local news
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Priscella Shum: Webpage logo for Money, Power, Inequality
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More Globe stories on inequality

THE GREAT DIVIDE

At Boston’s independent schools, parents offer their own solutions to city’s education gaps

In the decade before desegregation, schools opened as alternatives for Black students failed by BPS, each formed by residents who had decided to take their children’s education into their own hands.

FROM THE ARCHIVES | THE GREAT DIVIDE

Inside the forgotten story of Chinatown mothers who mobilized during the Boston busing crisis

The story of Boston’s busing crisis, the one memorialized in books, films, and podcasts, is typically characterized as a Black and white struggle. What is less known is the story of the Chinese immigrant women who organized a three-day school boycott in 1975 that would change the balance of power in Chinatown for decades to come.

THE GREAT DIVIDE

In the order to integrate Boston schools, Latinos were an afterthought. They’re still fighting for equal education today.

Latino students, now the largest ethnic group in BPS, also faced systemic discrimination in BPS and were taught in overcrowded schools with limited resources and subpar instruction that did not meet their linguistic or cultural needs.

THE GREAT DIVIDE

Could a Two-Generation approach to education work in Boston?

A program to end poverty in Austin, Texas, could hold valuable lessons for Boston, where Black and Latino students have yet to experience Boston Public Schools as an engine of upward mobility

BROKEN PROMISES, UNFULFILLED HOPE

50 years after busing decision, a school system still unequal, still segregated

Busing was set in motion by rightfully furious Black parents making modest demands: equal educational opportunity for their children and good schools in their own neighborhoods. It never happened.

Money, Power, Inequality

AAPI-owned businesses in Mass. cite lack of access to funding, resources in new report

The number of Asian-owned businesses in Massachusetts has more than doubled over the past two decades, but some owners faced challenges with obtaining funding and resources, according to a report released today by the Asian Business Empowerment Council.

Coming Soon: A multipart series exploring Boston’s busing crisis at 50

In an upcoming multipart project, The Boston Globe explores the legacy of Boston’s busing era.

THE GREAT DIVIDE

Boston Public Schools student homelessness hits all-time high. Why has it gotten so bad?

More than 5,000 BPS students have experienced homelessness at some point this school year. It’s a record level for the district, a troubling trend that has been on the rise since the 2021-2022 school year.

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More Globe projects

A Beautiful Resistance
Black joy, Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt.

The Great Divide
This is a reporting effort dedicated to investigating race, class, and inequality in Boston-area schools.

Spotlight
Explore projects and reports from the Boston Globe's Spotlight team.