Grace Donnelly

The path to a better and more inclusive education system could be paved with some surprising opinions among millennials, a generation often used as shorthand for progressive thinking, according to a new report from the <a href="https://genforwardsurvey.com/">GenForward Survey</a>.<div class="paywall-selector"></div><div class="paywall">
Nearly half of the millennials polled in a recent <a href="https://genforwardsurvey.com/assets/uploads/2017/09/GenForward-July-Toplines-_-Education.pdf">University of Chicago survey</a> say that colleges should limit freedom of speech &#8220;in extreme cases,&#8221; like slurs and other intentionally offensive language and costumes that stereotype certain racial and ethnic groups. And African American millennials, in particular, demonstrated a lot of support for charter schools. That&#8217;s an opinion that seemingly flies in the face of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/07/26/naacp-report-charter-schools-not-a-substitute-for-traditional-public-schools-and-many-need-reform/?utm_term=.eabf99220283">NAACP&#8217;s efforts to curb charter school growth.</a>
The University of Chicago-based GenForward survey was conducted in partnership with the <a href="https://dataqualitycampaign.org/">Data Quality Campaign</a>. GenForward continues the work of the <a href="http://blackyouthproject.com/about-us/">Black Youth Project</a> over the last 10 years and surveys young people bi-monthly, focusing on adequate representation of young people of color.
The <a href="https://genforwardsurvey.com/assets/uploads/2017/09/GenForward-Education-Report_Final.pdf">new survey</a>, focused on improving U.S. public education, polled a nationally representative group of 1,750 millennials, ages 18 and 34. The GenForward project was founded to examine how race and ethnicity shape the way participants experience and think about the world because young people of color are often underrepresented in survey data.
“It’s not just black and white, there is a lot of diversity in how they see the problems and some agreement on solutions,” said Vlad Medenica, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago and researcher for GenForward.
Overall, millennials gave the American education system a “C.&#8221; Researchers noted that respondents were more likely to award a higher grade to schools they attended. 
There was a pronounced a split among millennials about the role race plays in American schools and the role of integration.
<a href="https://content.fortune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/race_education_genforward.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2150549" src="https://content.fortune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/race_education_genforward.png" alt="" width="1024" height="644" /></a>
More than half of African American and Asian American respondents said students of color receive a worse education than white students, while the majority of Latinx and white millennials said race plays a very small role in determining the quality of education. 
When it comes to integration, we see a similar split. More than half of African Americans and Asian Americans believe that students should go to racially diverse schools even if that requires travel. For 61% of Latinx respondents and 73% of whites, proximity was more important. These groups said that students should go to local schools even if that meant a more homogenous student body.
<a href="https://content.fortune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/students_diversity_genforward.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2150553" src="https://content.fortune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/students_diversity_genforward.png" alt="" width="1024" height="729" /></a>
Millennials generally support increasing school funding, improving teacher training, and increasing teacher pay as the top three ways to improve the education system.
A majority of all race groups agreed that economic class affects the quality of education for American students, said Dakarai Aarons, vice president of strategic communications at the Data Quality Campaign.
“Millennials are also showing us they understand that despite there being a lot of rhetoric about education being the great equalizer,&#8221; he said, &#8220;that educational opportunities are in fact anything but equal or equitable in our country at the moment.” 
&nbsp;</div>

Half of millennials would limit free speech if it meant guarding against offensive material, say University of Chicago researchers.

Millennials: Limit Free Speech If It Means Less Hate Speech

legacy

Data

Leadership

According to a new survey from the University of Chicago about public education

Half of Millennials Support Restricting Free Speech 'In Extreme Cases'

Half of Millennials Support Colleges Restricting Free Speech ‘In Extreme Cases’

Millennials: Limit Free Speech If It Means Less Hate Speech | Fortune

Orianna Rosa Royle

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy: An ‘embarrassing’ amount of your success in your 20s depends on your attitude

/article/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-success-20s-attitude-gen-z/

Marco Zappacosta

Entrepreurial advice from a founder-CEO more than 15 years in: Build for the long game—and forget about being first

/2024/12/24/entrepreurial-advice-startups-founder-ceo/

Your Gen Z and millennial employees hate when you use these corporate buzzwords

/2024/12/24/your-gen-z-and-millennial-employees-hate-when-you-use-these-corporate-buzzwords/

Ryan Hogg

Business colleagues meeting in modern conference room

2024: The year the remote work dial shifted in European bosses’ favor

/europe/2024/12/24/2024-year-remote-work-dial-shifted-in-european-bosses-favor/

Christiaan Hetzner

Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos attend 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar After Party Arrivals

Musk urges Bezos to throw an ‘epic wedding’ after Amazon founder blasts report of $600 million nuptials as ‘completely false’

/2024/12/23/elon-musk-amazon-jeff-bezos-wedding-lauren-sanchez/

Brit Morse

Skyscrapers on 3rd Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

Half of companies with office space say leases are affecting their RTO policies

/2024/12/23/office-leases-driving-rto-return-to-office-policies/

The nation's favorite chocolate is 'disappointed' as Britain's King Charles strips Cadbury of its royal warrant—for the first time in 170 years

https://fortune.com/europe/2024/12/24/king-charles-strips-cadbury-of-royal-warrant-unilever/?itm_source=parsely-api

Jason Ma

One of the last affordable options in the housing crisis has seen prices soar faster than new homes, study says

https://fortune.com/2024/12/23/housing-crisis-mobile-home-prices-single-family-affordability/?itm_source=parsely-api

Preston Fore

Former Harvard president Larry Summers slams Ivy League schools for putting ‘social justice’ over excellence

https://fortune.com/2024/12/24/larry-summers-grade-inflation-concerns/?itm_source=parsely-api

Alicia Adamczyk

The IRS is sending $1,400 stimulus checks to 1 million taxpayers. How to tell if you qualify

https://fortune.com/2024/12/23/the-irs-is-sending-1400-stimulus-checks-to-1-million-taxpayers-how-to-tell-if-you-qualify/?itm_source=parsely-api

https://fortune.com/article/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-success-20s-attitude-gen-z/?itm_source=parsely-api

Katell Prigent

'People don't want to smell like others anymore'—this largely unknown perfume brand doesn't advertise, but its sales have still risen 50%

https://fortune.com/europe/2024/12/23/perfume-luxury-parfums-de-marly-niche/?itm_source=parsely-api