The documentary Corridor of Shame focuses on the deplorable public school conditions in the area of South Carolina around Interstate-95. This area has very few businesses and almost no large industry present. This results in very low property tax totals when compared to other areas of South Carolina. Since property taxes are the main source of funding for schools, this area is financially unable to improve their school buildings or pay teachers a competitive wage. This results in degrading school conditions and a high teacher turnover rate. Many students in this area are learning at levels far below what is expected from someone their age. Several school districts in this region joined together to bring a case to the South Carolina Supreme Court in hopes of receiving school …show more content…
funding similar to other areas of the state.
Following the Crenshaw documentary, we discussed how additional funding or the introduction of slightly “better” teachers is unlikely to aid in academic performance. It generally takes real change to the economic well-being of the surrounding area to improve students’ performance in schools. While it is certainly not my area of expertise, I would argue that this isn’t entirely true for all areas. In the previous documentary, we saw that Crenshaw High School was a reasonably well-funded school. It was on-par with many public high schools around the country from an appearance standpoint. Certainly, the students’ performance at Crenshaw was very low. There were important aspects of school such as special education and Hispanic-language accommodations that needed significant improvement. I do think, though, that Crenshaw was at a higher level of overall education quality and structural safety than many of the
schools seen in Corridor of Shame, at least from the way the two documentaries were presented. This is why I believe that students’ academic performance would be improved simply by providing additional funding to schools in this area of South Carolina. This is likely a solution with diminishing returns. As a school gets closer to average, additional funding will help its academic performance less and less. This may not be supported by past data, but I believe that the school conditions in this area of South Carolina are so poor that increasing funding would cause a noticeable increase in academic performance. Providing students with warm classrooms, working water fountains, better technology, and not forcing them to wake up at 5:30 a.m. to catch one of the few buses in the district would likely set them up for more academic success. Even if you discounted the likelihood that academic performance would be improved, this is certainly a human rights issue. Children shouldn’t be forced to learn in cold classrooms with the fear that the roof may fall on their heads at any moment. They shouldn’t have to sit on a bus for over two hours to get to and from school. Funding should be provided to school districts in a more equitable way. A larger amount of the property tax totals from the wealthier areas should help support schools in these poor areas, because it is really becoming like two different worlds. If you live in the upstate, you can probably send your child to some school with high-level teachers, state-of-the-art buildings, and some form of technology provided to each child. If you live in this area, you can let your child learn in cold room with no technology and outdated books. If a parent is paying for additional resources through private schooling, then this would be somewhat acceptable. But this is occurring in public schools. There has to be a greater effort put forth by state governments to increase the balance across the public school system.
Another school in the same district is located “in a former roller-skating rink” with a “lack of windows” an a scarcity of textbooks and counselors. The ratio of children to counselors is 930 to one. For 1,300 children, of which “90 percent [are] black and Hispanic” and “10 percent are Asian, white, or Middle Eastern”, the school only has 26 computers. Another school in the district, its principal relates, “‘was built to hold one thousand students’” but has “‘1,550.’” This school is also shockingly nonwhite where “’29 percent '” of students are “‘black [and] 70 percent [are]
That broader conception of school allowed those schools to better support the students and address social issues that prevent students from accessing their full potential. This conceptual shift can only be spurred by a clear vision of “good education”—which then caused an improvement in their community’s education
California is one of the largest states in the country and has one of the biggest state budgets, but in the past several years, its school system has become one of the worst in the nation because of enormous budget cuts in efforts to balance the state’s enormous deficit. The economic downturn at the end of the 2000s resulted in even more cuts to education. It is in environments like this one in which students from poor backgrounds become most vulnerable because of their lack of access to support in their homes as well as other programs outside of schools. Their already financially restricted school districts have no choice but to cut supplementary programs and increase class sizes among other negative changes to public schools. The lack of financial support from the state level as well as demands for schools to meet certain testing benchmarks by the state results in a system in which the schools are no longer able to focus on students as individuals; they are forced to treat students as numbers rather than on an individual case by case basis. An article from the Los Angeles Times showed that majority of Californians give California schools “a grade of C or below” and half think that the quality of schools will continue to decline (Watanabe).While the economic downturn affected the public school system in a negative way, it was not the sole root of its problems. It just simply exacerbated already existing issues.
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.
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?
Webber, Karl. “A Nation Still At Risk.” Waiting for Superman: How We Can Save Save America’s Failing Public Schools. Ed. Carl Weber. New York: PublicAffairs. 2010. 3-10. Print.
This article shows a majority of the cases that are relevant to the topic and research questions it clearly shows the articles that are involved with public schools and how and what they did. It helps answer that research question because it shows that some of the schools are capable of bypassing the system but sometimes get overturned.
In the essay “Shame”, by Dick Gregory, the author narrates how two painful experiences during his childhood reflected how difficult it was to grow up as a poor African American. Gregory was ashamed of being on welfare and of his poverty, so much so that he got of rid of the warm hooded mackaw he received because it was a reminder that he and his family were on relief. Gregory also expresses his embarrassment, shame, and desire to hold onto his dignity throughout it all. In the essay “I Became Her Target”, by Roger Wilkins, the author describes how it was difficult for him to break the ice with his classmates because he was a new student in school. In fact, Wilkins was the only black student in this new school which only worsened the situation. Moreover, he was the target of both
After watching the Teach Us All documentary on Netflix, it opened my eyes to many of the issues regarding educational inequality. The study looked at schools in Little Rock, New York City, and Los Angeles to show us the current state of U.S. education and how far we have come since the school desegregation crisis. The thesis of this documentary is that since the efforts of the Little Rock Nine, our belief is that educational inequality has improved when in reality, it hasn’t improved and the actions of our country have had negative effects. Teach Us All emphasizes the need for unity and collective action to improve our education system for the kids in poor communities that are in the most need. Our country has devoted all the resources to the middle and upper class for education and are taking money away from where it needs to
Achievement gaps in schools across America impinge on racial-ethnic and socioeconomic status groups. For generations school systems focus on improving the achievement gaps for low-income and minority students. Statistics have provided evidenced that the school systems made enormous progress between 1970 and 1988, but came to a halt thereafter. Presently in the 20th century the gap has widened and the need for improvement is challenging for the school administr...
Americans have always been optimists, and optimists have always liked to speculate. According to Laurence Shames, “great American hunger for more – more toys, more land, more opportunities – is an essential part of our history, and character, stemming from the frontier era when the horizon alone seemed the only limit to American desire.” (qtd. In Shames 80) Moreover, Shames asserts that Americans have been influenced by the frontier belief that “America would keep on booming” (para. 8). They believed that “There would always be another gold rush, another Homestead Act, another oil strike. The next generation would always ferret out opportunities that would be still more lavish than any that had gone before”. (qtd.in Shames 81). Because of these,
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 with schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school system 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.
Inequalities in Education Funding inequalities have been an issue from past to present, especially in the low-income communities. In fact, students in urban areas with less funding have low attendance, score lower on standardized testing, and a low graduation rate. Also subjected to outdated textbooks, old dilapidated buildings, students in the inner cities need to compete with their suburban and wealthy counterparts for this reason funding inequalities must end and more money should be directed to these communities from federal, state, and local governments. Frank Johnson, a writer for the National Center for Education Statistics, “Disparities in Public School Spending.”
Segregation and racism were most widely applied in education. In the South, schools’ finances were a contributor in the problem of civil rights and equal education. The schools that received the lowes...
Education is an integral part of society, school helps children learn social norms as well as teach them how to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. These schools have lower test scores and high dropout rates. In Trenton Central High School West, there was an 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often from low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial reasons to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and further teacher education, urban schools can be transformed and be better equipped to prepare their students for the global stage.