Across all ethnic and racial groups, education is expected to unequivocally boost income and wealth and "protect" against the pitfalls of economic and financial blows. However, the wealth of Hispanics and blacks isn't protected by education.

Educated individual routinely earn greater wages than their less-educated counterparts, leading to increased accumulated wealth. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published a report, "Why Didn't Higher Education Protect Hispanic and Black Wealth?" which explored two decades of detailed wealth data, and the report's author arrived at the conclusion that education fails to protect the wealth of Hispanics and Blacks, as it would whites and Asians.

Beyond the financial benefit of having more education, higher education is meant to incite more accumulated wealth. Also, it's expected that college-educated families are better able to withstand major economic and financial difficulty than their less-educated counterparts. Between 2007 and 2013, the length of the recession, the wealth of college-educated families declined 24 percent, although the damage was twice as much for less educated families.

Asian and white families with four-year college degrees weathered the Great Recession with greater ease than their less-educated counterparts. However, Hispanic and black families without degrees managed to outstrip families with someone with a four-year degree at the helm; educated families managed to have fewer gains during recovery and they didn't earn as much as college-educated white and Asian families. The loss of wealth that college-educated Hispanics and blacks experienced during 1993-2013 and the stormy recession period far exceeds loss experienced by other groups.

The report raised the question, "Can higher education protect Hispanic and black family wealth against short-term turbulence or long-term competitive pressures?" There are many answers to that question, including the understanding that job-market difficulties prevail for Hispanic and black college graduates more than for other groups. During the eve of the recession, debt-to-income ratios were far higher for Hispanic and black families headed by someone with a four-year degree, more so than for any other ethnic/racial group. Also, during the recession years to follow, there were significant declines in the value of owner-occupied homes. Additionally and more importantly, financial decision-making had deeper ramifications for Hispanic and black college-educated families during the Great Recession and its aftermath, contributing to significant wealth declines.

In 2013, the median income for four-year college graduates was 2.4 times higher than someone without a degree ($87,250 compared to $36,523), but whites and Asians with and without degrees fared better than Hispanics and blacks. The median income for white families exceeded that of other racial and ethnic groups, evident by the fact that white four-year college graduates earned $94,351 and non-college graduates earned $41,474. Meanwhile, Hispanic families with four-year college graduates earned $68,379, compared to $30,436 for non-college graduates. Also, blacks with four-year college degrees earned $52,147, compared to $26,581 for non-college graduates.

The story of multicultural wealth accumulation is similar to that of yearly earnings because whites and Asians were also inclined to have more. Depending on race or ethnicity, a family headed by someone with a four-year college degree held between three and 10 times more wealth than a lesser educated family without a degree, with white and Asian wealth ratios noticeably larger than those of black and Hispanic families. The median wealth for white four-year college graduates was $359,928, while it was $80,692 for families without an equivalent degree, both numbers far above average and far beyond what's attained by other groups. The median wealth for Hispanic four-year college graduates was $49,606, compared to $12,160 for non-college graduates. For blacks, the median wealth for four-year college graduates was $32,780, compared to $9,006 for non-college graduates.

According to the report, the income and wealth ratios were highest among white and Asian college graduates because "they're more likely to have graduate or professional degrees," which typically leads to higher earnings and it's associated with greater wealth accumulation. Education is a strong predictor of financial decision-making and it's expected to safeguard against turbulent times because it's associated with performance in the job market.

Nonetheless, in some cases educated Hispanic and black families fared worse than even less-educated Asians and whites, particularly when wealth was concerned. While income trends are more important in the longer term, Hispanic and black college-headed families experienced far more loss than their less-educated counterpart following the recession, and any other racial and ethnic group. Wealth for college-educated Hispanics declined 72 percent, compared to 41 percent for Hispanic families without a college degree.

The median income for college educated Hispanic and black incomes dropped 10 percent and 12 percent, respectively, while the median incomes of their less-educated counterparts rose 16 percent and 17 percent, respectively, during the same time frame. Meanwhile, the median income of educated white and Asian families rose 13 and 31 percent, respectively, over their less-educated counterparts.

The report additionally showed that the link between changes in income and changes in wealth are imperfect at best, at least during the most recent economic cycle. It also stated that racial and ethnic wealth disparities undoubtedly are "complex and deeply rooted," and higher education alone cannot level the playing field.

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