Report: Michigan graduates fewest blacks

DETROIT, July 25 (UPI) -- Michigan has the worst rate in the nation for graduating African-American males from public schools, a national report said Friday.

The survey further found Detroit has one of the worst grades for graduating black males among all U.S. school districts.

Michigan graduates just 33 percent of black males compared to 74 percent of white males, said the report "Given Half a Chance: the Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males," the Detroit News reported.

Detroit Public Schools graduate just 20 percent of black male students, the report says. The district has an even lower rate of graduating white males -- 17 percent.

This indicates that the low rates are more a matter of inequalities in resources than a matter of race, said John H. Jackson, president and CEO of the Cambridge, Mass.-based Schott Foundation.

To improve graduation rates, state and local officials should ensure those students have equal access to necessary resources to achieve high outcomes, he said.

"These black males can perform" with the proper resources, Jackson said.

North Dakota had the highest rate of black males graduating at 89 percent, a higher rate than the 84 percent of white males graduating in that state.