Citizen A and Citizen B are invited to a seminar to learn more about the investment deal of a lifetime. This asset is so exceptional it guarantees lifelong dividends, but there’s still one little catch.

Data shows that some investors will get a higher rate of return over their lifetime than others. Even though each person puts up the same amount of cash up front, accepts the same degree of risks and makes similar sacrifices, the annual rate of return differs.

On March 26, the Tri-State Defender reported that annual median salaries for African Americans, Hispanics and women who have earned bachelor’s degrees were substantially below the median salaries for European American, Asian Americans and men in 2007. According to figures released earlier this year by the U.S. Census Bureau, the median earnings for African-American workers 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree were $41,972 in 2007, compared with $47,904 for European Americans. An even bigger salary gap exists for women. The median salary for women 25 or older with a four-year degree was $38,628 in 2007, compared with $57,397 for men.

Carol Coletta, CEO and president of CEOs for Cities, which seeks to build more vibrant cities, made an excellent presentation to Shelby County (on March 31) on the value of a college degree and the need for regional officials to invest in talent of local academic all-stars.

If just 8,000 additional local residents were to return to college and complete their requirements for a degree, this region stands to get a $1 billion boost, Coletta said. Higher incomes lead to more robust and stable businesses, job creation, improved quality of life and fuller city and county tax coffers.

It’s a win-win-win situation.

In a battered and bruised economy, smart metropolitan areas will seek to gain maximum value from every asset, including human capital. This is a conversation worth having, and as Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton says, the pay gap within the workforce is an essential part of the dialog. So is the need for cultural competency – the skills that allow managers, faculty, police, elected officials and others to be effective and fair in their encounters with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Today, Main Street investors – including African American students and single mothers struggling to pay the rising costs of college – are asking tougher questions and making greater demands, just like their counterparts on Wall Street.

They have a right to know why they put up the same amount of capital to get a college degree yet get far less in return. They have a right to ask what colleges and universities are doing to understand their barriers and increase opportunities for academic success. They have a right to a faculty that understands that culture affects an individual’s beliefs as well as the assumptions he or she makes about student potential and success.

And they have a right to ask the business community - which stands to gain financially from the investment ethnic communities and women are making in higher education - for an equal rate of return, once they get that degree.

If each stakeholder – students, businesses, faculty, college administrators - meets separately to consider ways to improve internal performance and processes for inclusion -  Shelby County’s chances of getting 8,000 new college graduates – each and every year - will greatly improve.

It will take a community of learners to get this job done.