This report examines Senator Barack Obama’s and Senator John McCain’s health care proposals in the context of eliminating the nation’s longstanding racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care.

In recent years, as states have faced increasing difficulty balancing their budgets, many have implemented measures to help achieve solvency by limiting spending within their Medicaid programs. Medicaid is the federal/state health insurance program that serves low-income seniors, children, working families, and people with disabilities, more than half of whom are people of color. States’ recent cost containment measures have changed the way Medicaid operates and have altered the access to and the quality of health-care services and treatments received by enrollees. Since the program is funded jointly by the federal and state governments and is administered by states, elected officials at both of these levels of government engage in the program’s rule making.

Although a few highly visible African Americans have reached positions of high status, income, and power in the United States, most blacks still live separately from whites, and significantly lag behind whites in terms of income, housing, health, and education.1 Other non-white groups, including Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans, also rank lower than whites on many measures of living conditions and opportunities, and tend to live in ethnic enclaves. Of all those not classified as members of the dominant white group, young men of color (YMC) are particular objects of stereotyping, fear, anger, misunderstanding, and rejection. Indeed, public attitudes and emotions restrict their lives and keep them from enjoying the full range of opportunities and benefits of American society.

This background paper focuses on the status of black male students in higher education in the U.S. It examines public flagship universities in each of the 50 states, providing stark evidence of racial disparities in public higher education, particularly for black males. Its statistical analysis of college access, graduation rates, degree attainment, and black student athletes illustrates the extent of these disparities across the nation and “the need to strengthen the social contract between public institutions of higher education and black male citizens” through various reforms.

This background paper focuses on the barriers that are limiting the educational and life paths of boys and young men of color. Specifically, the paper creates an action agenda centered on nine topics within education policy: high-stakes testing, school finance, literacy, recruitment of representative teachers, teacher preparation, school choice, single-sex classrooms/schools, structure of school day/year, and zero-tolerance policies.

This report examines the child welfare system with respect to the ability of minority children to pursue positive life options, with a special emphasis on male children of color.

This paper evaluates the impact of the prison-industrial complex on males from communities of color. In particular, it asks the following questions: What is the impact of the large increases in the proportion of state and local public funds dedicated to corrections? To what extent has the private corrections industry influenced and driven national, state, and local policy regarding criminal justice policy and programs?

This report focuses on well-being outcomes in urban, poor, and minority communities, particularly African American communities. Throughout this discussion, the analysis will be applied to black men. That said, much of the proposed framework can be applied to men in general, although admittedly, references to culture and race will need to be modified to consider the identity and experience of other groups of men in the context of their community identities, histories, and cultures.

This paper examines emerging strategies and models for effective treatment and support for young people in the juvenile justice system. It clarifies Medicaid regulations that affect states’ ability to deliver vital health services in a timely manner as young people enter and leave the juvenile justice system. And it offers guidance to state legislators, mental health and juvenile justice professionals, as well as others who are working to provide the wide range of health services needed by young people in the juvenile justice system.

This background paper examines the status of American Indians and Alaska Natives in higher education, with an emphasis on issues that influence American Indian and Alaska Native men’s enrollment and retention in college. Given the dearth of research on the educational experiences of this population, the paper reviews the relevant educational statistics and explores possible reasons why so many American Indian and Alaska Native men are not reaching college.