The Poynter Institute's Bobbi Bowman on news that doesn't break, per se, but is the story behind the story that is often more significant in the long term rather than splashy in the sort term.
She was quoting legendary editor Eugene L. Roberts, who once said: "Many important stories don’t break. They seep, trickle and ooze. Let’s be sure we are covering the ooze."
Bowman gives a census story out of Illinois as a way to cover the ooze of how the workforce is changing and the implications for the future.
While the workers are getting browner, white people are aging. That means that tomorrow’s minority workers will pay for the Social Security checks and for the increasing number of services that an increasingly elderly white population will need.
Look in heartland of America: Illinois. In that state, the elderly population is 80 percent white. The young population is nearly 50 percent brown. It is a perfect example of the profound implications of these two trends.
Illinois is a gateway state for immigrants. Illinois is losing its young. The remaining white population is aging. Hence it will be the taxes of young black, Mexican and Asian workers -- many of them immigrants and children of immigrants -- who will take care of Illinois’ mostly white senior citizens.
Minorities constitute nearly 70 percent of Cook County public schools, the home county to Chicago and its closest suburbs. But here’s the ooze: Figures calculated on the National Center for Educational Statistics Web site show that minority enrollments in some of the suburban counties surrounding Chicago range from one third to about one half.
So finally, let’s talk about education and money: Black Americans, Asian Americans and Mexican Americans will increasingly replace white Americans in the Illinois workforce and as taxpayers.
The Illinois State Board of Higher Education has found that college graduates earn 50 percent more than high school graduates in a lifetime. That’s more than a half-million dollars in additional income. The more money you make, the more taxes you pay.
Since education largely determines income and therefore buying power, let’s look at education levels by race for those 25 and older in Illinois. These adult education levels are a leading indicator of the education levels of the younger generation.
- Non–Hispanic whites: More than 90 percent are high school graduates and about a third have a college degree.
- Blacks: More than 80 percent are high school graduates and about 20 percent have a college degree.
- Asians: More than 90 percent are high school graduates and a whopping 71 percent have a college degree.
- Latinos: Just under 60 percent are high school graduates and slightly more than 10 percent have a college degree.
We love breaking news. We can see it. We can feel it.
Oozing news is incremental. But it outlines the themes of the future.