Students who go to school in urban schools are not given the same opportunities as a child their age in a suburban area school. Students who go to school in urban schools are put at a disadvantage compared to students who go to school in suburban areas. As a pre-service teacher it is my responsibility to work toward fixing this injustice and inform my surrounding community. As we look into this injustice we see how there are many solutions to this problem and that the government and people need to educated about this issue. There are some who are against changing or do not feel it is necessary to fight the educational system even though their children might be impacted. Through my research I found information supporting my viewpoint of helping to improve our educational system in the United States, but I was unable to find research or a scholarly article that agrees with the current educational program.
This social injustice within our nation’s education program is a concern to many people, but society or the government has not confronted it. People need to be informed about because in our constitution everyone has the right to a free public education and we should not place one district at an advantage over another. “The Constitution requires that all kids be given equal educational opportunity no matter what their race, ethnic background, religion, or sex, or whether they are rich or poor, citizen or non-citizen” (American Civil Liberties Union “ACLU”, 2003). Even if you are in this country illegally, you have the right to go to public school. Each student who goes into a school anywhere in the United States should be given the same level of education. If students were to go to school in California and they move to another st...
... middle of paper ...
...ry little for the school to buy the proper material for their students. This issue leaves the students of the urban schools at a disadvantage to students who attend a suburban school.
Works Cited
American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved December 4, 2013, from https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice_womens-rights/your-right-equality-education
Average National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scale score, by grade and selected student and school characteristics: Selected years, 1992 through 2011. Retrieved December 4, 2013, from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_142.asp
Fast Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. .
Sandy, J., & Duncan, K. (2010). Examining the achievement test score gap between urban and suburban students. Education Economics, 18(3), 297-315. doi:10.1080/09645290903465713
Savage Inequalities, written by Jonathan Kozol, shows his two-year investigation into the neighborhoods and schools of the privileged and disadvantaged. Kozol shows disparities in educational expenditures between suburban and urban schools. He also shows how this matter affects children that have few or no books at all and are located in bad neighborhoods. You can draw conclusions about the urban schools in comparison to the suburban ones and it would be completely correct. The differences between a quality education and different races are analyzed. Kozol even goes as far as suggesting that suburban schools have better use for their money because the children's futures are more secure in a suburban setting. He thinks that each child should receive as much as they need in order to be equal with everyone else. If children in Detroit have greater needs than a student in Ann Arbor, then the students in Detroit should receive a greater amount of money.
The first element of Kozol’s article is the reality of urban public schools and the isolation of their students. Jonathan Kozol illustrates a grim reality about the unequal attention given to urban and suburban schools. The article explains how Kozol specifically looks at how they reflect institutional discrimination and the failure to address the needs of minority children. The article notes that these are the inequalities of the title, seen in the way schools in predominantly white neighborhoods are more likely to have sufficient funding, while schools in poor and minority neighborhoods do not. Kozol shows everyone involved in the education system that public schools are still separate and, therefore, still unequal. Suburban schools, which are primarily made up of white students, are given a far superior better education than urban schools. These urban schools are primarily made up of Hispanics and African Americans.
“Brown vs. Board of Education” made it a federal crime to segregate children based on race in 1954. On the other hand, “Plessy vs. Ferguson” concluded that “separate but equal” was justified in America’s education system in 1896. Fifty years later after “Brown vs. Board of Education” according to author Jonathan Kozol, the school systems are run more like a separate but unequal system. Kozol states that today’s schools are just as segregated as they were before 1954 and funding is seriously inadequate for those in the urban areas where most attendee’s are African American and Hispanic. This inadequate funding has led to overcrowding, dilapidation of the schools, a decreasing number of on-site health officials, and lack of an enriching educational program. The effects of the funding situation has led to poor state standardized test scores, and an increasing number of students dropping out or taking more than four years to graduate. Today, strict military style programs hope to correct these poor outcomes. Are today’s schools being segregated to pay less for subordinate groups’ education, or is this just one person’s one-sided outtake on a matter that society has little control over? I aim to examine these accusations incorporating some firsthand experience from my dilapidating public school system.
The gap between the nation’s best and worst public schools continues to grow. Our country is based on freedom and equality for all, yet in practice and in the spectrum of education this is rarely the case. We do not even have to step further than our own city and its public school system, which many media outlets have labeled “dysfunctional” and “in shambles.” At the same time, Montgomery County, located just northwest of the District in suburban Maryland, stands as one of the top school systems in the country. Within each of these systems, there are schools that excel and there are schools that consistently measure below average. Money alone can not erase this gap. While increased spending may help, the real problem is often rooted in the complex issues of social, cultural, and economic differences. When combined with factors involving the school itself and the institution that supports it, we arrive at what has been widely known as the divide between the suburban and urban schools. Can anything actually be done to reverse this apparent trend of inequality or are the outside factors too powerful to change?
The Brown v. Board of Education turned over the Plessy v. Ferguson case, as it was deemed unconstitutional. Unconstitutional, because separating children by race was fundamentally unequal and it violated the fourteenth amendment. This was a crucial historical event that made it possible for blacks and whites to attend school together and end segregation. At least that’s what was expected to happen. In the year of 2002-2003, Chicago was found that 87 percent of the public schools were black or Hispanic, and less than 10 percent were white (Kozol 405). In New York, 75 percent were either black or Hispanic. This indicated the opposite effect of what had been dealt with 30 years ago. Yet resegregation is still happening. It shows how deeply segregated minority students are in the poorest and most isolated areas of America. Furthermore, nothing has been done to alleviate it, because the major cities have no knowledge of this reality. In the past, it had been significant to the whole nation, but now it seems that they have turned a blind eye. On the other hand, there is a link between education, segregation and poverty. Minorities, compared to wealthy white Americans, cannot afford to send their children to private schools. They do not have access to higher education, such as college or an adult school, that the wealthy whites have. This puts a limitation on
America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s problems. Most important, money cannot influence student, parent, teacher, and administrator perceptions of class and race. Nor can money improve test scores and make education relevant and practical in the lives of minority students.
The United States has many conflicts, one of them is funding on Public Education. In fact Public schools are to make every effort to try and help the students with all they can. Some schools have better things to offer to their schools. It depends on the population where the school is located. Do you agree that the public schools should get the funding depending on the population of where they are located? So many things are unfair and we the people do not really have much we can say publicly or even speak up to this situation. Every student should have the same opportunities as someone that goes to a school where tons of money are invested into. Let us focus on tomorrow’s future instead because once we know it the time will come to see these successful students take part of our country and keep us going forward for the better. Despite the fact that funding on public education will not help students succeed academically with the money provided to the schools, every school deserves to get as much money because students will receive more proper education and will be more successful students in the future.
America’s public school system started off very rough, but through the dedication of many hard-working Americans, it was starting to shape into a system that allowed all children, regardless of race, gender, religion, or nation of origin, to have an education.
For decades now, there have been educational problems in the inner city schools in the United States. The schools inability to teach some students relates to the poor conditions in the public schools. Some of the conditions are the lack of funds that give students with the proper supplies, inexperienced teachers, inadequate resources, low testing scores and the crime-infested neighborhoods. These conditions have been an issue for centuries, but there is nothing being done about it. Yet, state and local governments focus on other priorities, including schools with better academics. It is fair to say that some schools need more attention than other does. However, when schools have no academic problems then the attention should be focused elsewhere, particularly in the inner city schools.
Through programs that directly fuel desegregation in schools, our educational systems have become a melting pot of different races, languages, economic status and abilities. Programs have been in place for the past fifty years to bring student that live in school districts that lack quality educational choices, to schools that are capable of providing quality education to all who attend. Typically the trend appears to show that the schools of higher quality are located in suburban areas, leaving children who live in “black” inner-city areas to abandon the failing school systems of their neighborhoods for transportation to these suburban, “white” schools. (Angrist & Lang, 2004)
There are many other areas around the United States where urban schools suffer from lack of funding. In many of America...
Imagine going to school one day, and you find out that your teacher is being laid off because the school can not afford to keep them. Your school has decided to triple the amount of students in one class. Urban education has been impacted tremendously by insufficient funding, and overcrowding schools. Urban schools are insufficiently funded causing, smaller amounts of teaching staff, outdated supplies, and poor building conditions. Urban schools are also overcrowded, which causes stressful working conditions and negative effects on classroom activities. The current issues are negatively affecting students academically in urban schools. Insufficient funding and overcrowding urban schools are greatly impacting urban education.
Having an education is also vital to an individual being able to find a career and live a wealthy life. However, not all people receive an equal opportunity when it comes to obtaining an education. One inequality that sociologist have explored with the education system is the difference in education between rural and suburban areas. According to Roscigno, Tomaskovic-Devey, and Crowley (2006), “Students living in inner city and rural areas of the United States exhibit lower educational achievement and a higher likelihood of dropping out of high school than do their suburban counterparts” (para. 1). Causes of these inequalities could be due to their local economy and the availability of resources. (Roscigno et., al 2006). Communities that thrive off a strong economy may have access to better jobs, school systems, and services. Likewise, students that attend the schools in these communities may have access to better public libraries, school resources, and extracurricular activities. As can be seen, communities can take advantage of their wealth by providing more options for increasing individuals learning
Some states want to have separation when it comes to the income of these schools. States argue that high class, wealthy, school districts should have more money than the lower class districts, because of the tax payers wants or because there are better opportunities for students to grow in the wealthier areas. According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 50 percent of lower end schools are not receiving the amount of money they should get from the state funds (U.S. Department of Education). This is what is preventing school districts in these areas from helping students with their education. The schools are forced to cut back on programs such as extracurricular activities that are suppose to encourage students to be active, or they would have to cut back on supplies where in some cases there are not enough textbooks for each student to have his or her own. The U.S. Department of Education also stated that teachers that are less paid and have less years teaching are often the ones dealing with the students in poverty. (U.S. Department of Education). This only prolongs the problem with children receiving the proper education. If they are taught by teachers who don’t know what they are teaching or those who don’t have enough experience, then the students are not going to learn the correct information or any information at all. While there are some schools
Wilde, Marian. Apples and Oranges: Comparing Private and Public School Test Scores. 1998-2014. 10 February 2014 .