Understanding income demographics can definitely help decide the level of difficulties employers will face, especially jobs that require higher level of skills. Many political leaders advocate school vouchers for students to attend higher performing schools, but the program does not offer enough capacity to close education gap. Especially since, not only, every student can take advantage of the voucher program, but voucher participating schools may not have the scope of enrolling every transfer, new, and disadvantaged students into their programs. Low-income schools, generally, obtain smaller amount of resources; therefore, have less access to challenging courses that will prepare students for the 21st century job market. “Only 8 percent of low-income students take a rigorous course load, compared with 28 percent of affluent students” (CED 2005). Ignoring this group and not providing enough guidance can definitely prolong the economic crisis, especially when many of these students may actually have a strong possibility for success and leadership. This crisis, will not only extend poverty cycle within this group, but decrease their confidence level that can make them lead to destructive paths. “Children raised in low-income, single parent families often suffer from a number of critical cognitive, health, and nutritional deficits that are likely to limit their future academic achievement and educational attainment” (ETS). Lower-income students may more likely suffer from malnutrition and other health problems, which may cause them to lack concentration in classrooms and trainings for the workforce. Since low-income students receive lower quality education, they will more likely struggle to attract future employers in highly technica...
... middle of paper ...
...less exposure to the 21st century job market. “Less than 4 percent of white students attend schools where 70-100 percent of the students are poor, however, 40 percent of black and Latino students attend such high poverty schools” (Kondracke 2009). White students are more likely to gain exposure to some type of 21st century training, while minorities may graduate from high school totally unprepared for highly technical industries. Since Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to live in impoverished communities, they are less likely to get access to computers that will allow them to become familiar with high-tech and software programs. These charts are showing that Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to be enrolled or are proficient in knowledge-based courses than Whites and Asians. Yet, Asians seem to be more proficient in math and science compared to White Americans.
It’s considered a rarity now days to walk down a major city street and not come across a single person who is fighting to survive poverty. The constant question is why don’t they go get help, or what did they do to become like this? The question that should be asked is how will America fix this? Over the past year, Americans who completed high school earned fifteen point five percent more per hour than that of dropouts (Bernstein, Is Education the Cure to Poverty). According to Jared Bernstein, in his article “Is Education the Cure to Poverty”, he argues that not only do the poor need to receive a higher education, but to also maximize their skill levels to fill in where work is needed (Is Education the Cure to Poverty). Counter to Bernstein’s argument Robert Reich expresses that instead of attempting to achieve a higher education, high school seniors need to find another way into the American middle class. Reich goes on to say “the emerging economy will need platoons of technicians able to install, service, and repair all the high-tech machinery filling up hospitals, offices, and factories” (Reich, Why College Isn’t (and Shouldn’t Have to be) for Everyone). Danielle Paquette, though, offers an alternative view on higher education. Paquette gives view that it doesn’t matter on the person, rather it’s the type of school and amount of time in school that will determine a person’s
Why would anyone wish to withhold support for a program that has the potential to revolutionize the, often, insufficient American education system? This question has undoubtedly entered the mind of proponents of education voucher systems across the country. However, despite the pressure placed on legislators everywhere, close scrutiny of the real issues should not be clouded by public fervor. It is my belief that, after a thorough examination of the merits of such programs, school vouchers would be a gross detriment to both the American education system and the nation itself.
Vouchers have grown into an important and powerful tool that government can use to provide directed goods and services to specific groups. Voucher systems have become a highly effective tool that is not only used for food/nutritional and housing services, but secondary educational and child-care services, as well. Although voucher systems continue to remain a heated public and political debate, success stories, as the one mentioned in the case examined will only give rise to such systems in the provisioning of public education in years to come.
School Choice: Followed the ruling on compulsory education. Parents have a right to choose whether their children go to a private, parochial or public school, or they may choose to home-school. Parents must accept any responsibility for their choice.
...disparities between the two ethnic communities that can be traced back to the legacy of slavery and other forms of oppression that blacks have suffered.” Supporters of this view felt that educational achievement correlates more strongly with economic status than with any other single variable. Since the majority of the black community lags behind whites in income and wealth, the educational inequalities are caused by the economic inequalities. They believe that once the inequalities disappear, the educational disparities will as well. Many argue that this is not a viable argument. They point to other minority groups such as Asians, some of whom are financially worse off than blacks, and they excel in school . They felt that because the civil rights legislation removed all roadblocks back in the 60’s and 70’s something else must be contributing to the large gap.
The Achievement Gap in America has separated and divided America's youth into more or less, two different cultures of socioeconomic placement. The first being the predominantly Caucasian students at American elementary schools, high schools, and colleges that excel greatly in their education. Most of the time earning them middle to upper class jobs in the economy, the aforementioned group contrasts significantly with its opposite culture of American youth. The second culture, the population that is mostly made up of the minority races, takes it's place in the American education system as the population of students who are less interested in getting a decent education and taking advantage of the resources that are offered, for various underlying reasons. This in turn manufactures less people of this type of culture to be readily available for higher paying jobs, and often times unemployable for a job at all. The Achievement Gap in America is influenced by many cultural, environmental, and socioeconomic factors that separate lower and higher achieving students based on these factors, and leave a high amount of unemployed Americans as a result, if not incarcerated or deceased.
Education can be somewhat helpful to people headed toward poverty or homelessness. However, new research is showing that education is needed but alone it is simply not enough to help people get jobs and help their situation. Along with their education, the poor need job training in the area of work they are looking towards (Bernstein 1). The training along with the mandatory education helps people excel in something they are good at and improve their job chances. The people who do get their education and job training then run into another roadblock. In the U.S. economy, typically low-wage jobs are more abundant. In fact, the low-wage sector of the economy is the part that is projected to grow the most. In the next ten years, thirty new low-wages jobs are expected to be added to the work force. Of those thirty, half of the new jobs will require very little training (Bernstein 3). This results in a lower quality of work and less pay. Many people on the verge of poverty occupy these low paying job...
In an article for The Atlantic titled “The Workforce is Even More Divided by Race Than You Think,” Derek Thomson looks at workforce participation and wages by sex and race. He finds that regardless of sex or participation in the workforce, race takes precedence in determining how much workers make: "White men and women out-earn black men and women, who themselves out-earn Hispanic men and women, among full-time workers—even though Hispanic men have the highest participation rate" (Thomson). The reason for this, Thomson explains, is the accessibility to higher wage jobs, with whites and Asians having a much denser presence in jobs such as construction managers, CEO’s, physicians, surgeons, and software developers, whereas blacks are more likely to work as security guards or bus drivers, and Hispanics are more likely to work as maids, house cleaners, or in landscaping jobs. A central dynamic behind this is the difference in level of education between races: “Blacks and Hispanics, who make up about one-quarter of the workforce, represent 44 percent of the country’s high school dropouts and just 15 percent of its bachelor’s earners.”
People with various degrees are finding it harder to get jobs where they would like to work. Even the increased rate of layoffs for the Tech industry, which usually include packages for an estimated amount of time off, has risen as well. There are programs that assist these situations such as welfare. “The Welfare Act of 1996 was designed to move people from welfare to jobs. According to a letter to the Chicago Tribune, once they got jobs, they lost public assistance,” said Arloa Sutter, executive director of Breakthrough Urban Ministries. She has firsthand knowledge about the struggle of homelessness because she runs two Chicago homeless shelters. Then, when they lose the jobs they once had, they find it difficult to qualify for the assistance they need again under the new regulations that have been put in place. People who are considered the “lower-class” are not the people to be worried about, even though they may seem to be more prone to poverty in their lives. These individuals still have the availability of all the services and programs which allow them to get help. The “middle-class” people are expected to be closer to poverty because they are said to make too much money. The amount that is required for financial aid in college is below $10,000 annually, but by then the person is already expected to be homeless and in debt on that salary. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Low-income and minority students are the individuals and groups that are the most negatively affected by the United States educational failure. The number of Hispanic students in the United States is expected to grow 33 percent by 2020 and the number of multi-racial students are expected to grow 44 percent, however their educational future does not look bright. Historically, minorities are the most likely to be impoverished. Dozens of policies have been drafted and implemented in order to fix this problem, however the solutions have not worked, since at least 50 percent of elementary school students are now attending schools where the majority of students are low income and minority. The high poverty, educational environment the students are in leads to less high school graduation and college attendance, thus in turn will lead to a large population that will burden the United States economy later on in areas such as healthcare and welfare.
Use of School Vouchers There has been a lot of debate recently over the use of school vouchers. Voucher programs offer students attending both public and private schools tuition vouchers. It gives taxpayers the freedom to pick where their tax dollars go. In theory, good schools will thrive with money and bad schools will lose students and close its doors. Most people feel that taking taxpayer money from public schools and using this money as vouchers for private schools is a violation of the constitution.
Education is sometimes viewed as a pathway to a better lifestyle. Many people are more privileged and have higher education than others. Minority students, on average, perform less well than white students in school; although, Asian-Americans are an exception to this rule (Melissa Doak). Various resources show the statistical differences among ethnic races in their performance of education. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, minorities with lower levels of education have higher unemployment rates and lower median incomes (National Center for Educational Statistics). Education in minority groups can greatly differ from other races, when education should be equal and available for all.
College preparation is not the only area in which schools are failing students. According to Achieve, Inc. (2005), 39% of high school graduates in the workforce say that they have deficiencies. When asked about being prepared for future jobs, forty-six percent say that they are deficient in the skills needed. These shortcomings in the education system will escalate when in the next 10 years, 80% of job openings will require education or training past the high school level (Achieve, 2010). One third of jobs will require a bachelor’s degree. Lower educational attainment is a national problem. Competing countries now boast more workers with associates degree...
Unfortunately for impoverished and minority students, this is where they fall short. According to Brookings.edu, Schools based in communities primarily composed of low-income and minority students have fewer necessary instructional resources. Students in these communities and social class tend to lack such materials as books, core curriculum, computers, and even quality teachers. Teachers working in schools servicing low-income and minority students are usually inexperienced or underqualified. In addition to this, these teachers are required to teach significantly larger class sizes. Many of these schools don’t even offer the necessary math and science classes needed to advance to college (Hammond). Completing college is also a challenge for individuals who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Just as in grammar schools and high schools, the quality of education within colleges need to improve. Relying on one’s own knowledge is the key in receiving upward mobility because of the financial obstacles associated with attending a University. The article “Economic Inequality and Higher Education”
Currently, relatively few urban poor students go past the ninth grade. The graduation rates in large comprehensive inner-city schools are abysmally low. In fourteen such New York City Schools, for example, only 10 percent to 20 percent of ninth graders in 1996 graduated four years later. Despite the fact that low-income individuals desperately need a college degree to find decent employment, only 7 percent obtain a bachelors degree by age twenty-six. So, in relation to ...