Equity Scoring
As a society, we measure what we value and we value what we measure. If we truly want to create an equitable and inclusive society, we must measure how well our policies, investments, and decisions stack up to that goal. This is why the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy and the Center for Community Uplift at Brookings have partnered to produce research that contributes to the advancement and development of racial equity assessment and scoring at local, state, and national levels.
Reports
Racial Equity and Public Transportation Subsidies: A Case Study of the NYC Ferry and Fair Fares
By Prisca Agombe and George Sweeting
June 2024
Produced by the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School in partnership with the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy and the Center for Community Uplift as a part of the Equity Scoring Project, this report demonstrates how local governments can apply a racial equity analysis to their public transportation subsidies to surface potential inequities and inform more equitable decision making going forward. The report examines local subsidies across New York City’s ten transit systems by race and income, honing in on inequities between the Fair Fares reduced fare program for the MTC subway and bus riders and the subsidies applied to the NYC Ferry service.
Learn more and read the report >>
Measuring what matters for racial progress: Local and state innovation in racial equity impact assessment
By Richard McGahey, Xavier de Souza Briggs, Sarah Treuhaft, and Jessika Sherman
June 2023
This report documents the important progress that community advocates and government equity leaders have made to implement racial equity impact assessment across a range of policy arenas and functions. In this report, we analyze six cases of innovative racial equity impact assessment (REIA) efforts from localities and states around the country:
Keeping promises while keeping score: Gauging the impacts of policy proposals on racial equity
By Xavier de Souza Briggs and Richard M. McGahey
October 2022
This paper describes the remarkable progress that local governments have made over the past several years to apply racial equity impact assessment to policymaking. For these assessments to become broadly transformative and supported, the authors call for greater public sector capacity, additional allies, and more generative projects that show the idea in action and deliver visible, valued results in communities.
Additional Publications
Op-Ed | Why expanding Fair Fares eligibility is a matter of racial justice
In this op-ed, New York City Councilmember Justin Brannon and Director of Economic and Fiscal Policies at the Center for New York City Affairs James Parrott highlight our report, "Public Transportation Subsidies and Racial Equity: A Case Study of the NYC Ferry and Fair Fares"— arguing that expanding New York City's Fair Fares eligibility is a matter of racial equity,
Just as we score policies’ budget impact, we should score for racial equity as well
In this blog post, Darrick Hamilton and Andre Perry call for the OMB to establish a scoring system to measure equity—just as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scores bills with regard to impact on the federal budget.
To keep promises of achieving racial equity, let’s start keeping score - The Boston Globe
In this opinion piece for The Boston Globe, project team members Xavier de Souza Briggs, Darrick Hamilton, Richard McGahey, and Andre Perry advocate that governments at all levels should assess proposed policies and budgets for how much they would either promote or undermine racial equity and inclusion (and other forms of equity).