Rossides's Theory Of Lower-Class Education

Daniel Rossides asserts that a child 's class origin is strongly and directly related to all forms of academic achievement. He continues to say that one 's social class affects all aspects of education, such as regularity of attendance, regular promotion in grade, participation in clubs etc. Lower-class children are more likely to miss school often and fail classes because of illness, lack of financial resources and motivation from absent full-time working parents. Overall, one 's social background plays a large role in one 's life opportunities and successes, and the United States will never be a pure meritocracy until social backgrounds no longer advantage some and disadvantage others.

While evaluation systems, such as formal education are

Schools are funded by local land taxes, thus ones that are located in wealthy white neighborhoods have higher per pupil expenditures than schools located in lower-class communities. Higher per pupil expenditures mean better books, computers, supplies, resources, and education. Wealthy communities attract the better teachers as well because many of them do not want to teach the "rowdy" students typical of a poor minority community. Even in an imaginary world where all schools were equally funded, lower-class children would still be disadvantaged by unequal treatment and lower expectations from administration. MacLeod cites Bourdieu 's theory of cultural capital to explain the poor achievement of working class children. He asserts that the cultural capital of the lower-classes-their manners, norms, dress, style of interaction, and linguistic facility is devalued by the school, while the cultural capital of the upper-class is rewarded. He goes on the say that class-based differences in speech patterns affect academic achievement and place working-class students at an additional disadvantage. While most faculties try to educate and treat all students equally, subconsciously they

Still to this day, African Americans experience higher unemployment rates and earn a large proportion less compared to White men in this country due to persistent discrimination. Samuel Cohn showed that the black male unemployment rate has consistently been higher than their white counterparts since midcentury. This employment disparity can be explained by many different discriminatory factors. While it may not be intentional discrimination, many businesses are choosing to move out of inner-cities where most poor minorities reside and locate in more urban areas. These relocations make it a lot more difficult for blacks to hear about and reach potential job openings. In addition to subtle discrimination, some employers simply refuse to employ African Americans. They may view them as lazy and ignorant, thus forcing blacks to accept whatever job they can get. Even when blacks are offered positions, they only earn 77 cents to every dollar their white colleagues make. This large income disparity advantages the whites who enjoy higher wages, while making it harder for blacks to break out of