Only 37% of the middle class have a college degree or higher

Some interesting research from the Brookings institution on opportunity bottlenecks. In The College Bottleneck in the American Opportunity Structure by Richard V. Reeves and Quentin Karpilow, they are looking at education as a bottleneck, particularly by race.

Interesting in its own right. However, what caught my eye was this graphic.

Yes, the inter-racial comparisons are interesting but look, for the moment, at just the white element at the bottom of the graphic. If you multiply the numbers through (76%X31% for college graduates and 58%X69% for non-college graduates) you get to the number that 63% of those in the American middle class do not have a college degree (the comparable number for African-Americans is 73%). I don't dispute that number (though I would like to see it confirmed) but I am not sure I have ever seen it put like that before. In many ways that's pretty impressive. And heartening.