A $650 billion federal loan program created to address the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic failed to reach large numbers of women, Black, Hispanic or Asian people in the Kansas City region, according to an analysis by the new UMKC Institute for Data Education, Analytics and Science (IDEAS).
The coordinator of the new institute is Brent Never, associate professor at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management. Never conducted an analysis after the Small Business Administration on Monday released information about the recipients of the Paycheck Protection Program loans tied to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Never’s analysis found that the program made 4,677 loans of $150,000 or more in the Kansas City region to small businesses or 501(c)(3) public charities with up to 500 employees. Of those loans:
- 24 went to African American/Black-owned firms;
- 34 went to Hispanic-owned firms;
- 33 went to Asian-owned firms;
- 250 went to women-owned firms.
The vision for IDEAS is positioning UMKC as the top option for data science training in the region, building on the university’s strengths in biomedical informatics, big data analytics, image analysis, digital humanities and geospatial analysis.