The Struggle of the Educational System

The Struggle of the Educational System

It seems as if the American government has struggled to evaluate the current educational system in order to determine if significant social issues, including increasing regional poverty, and declining literacy rates in specific urban regions are related to economic differentiations in the education system. There needs to be more emphasis placed on determining a system that provides greater equity between disadvantaged inner-city schools and wealthier suburban, middle class schools. 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. Many obvious distress signals seen in today's American urban schools include the increasingly overloaded and under-funded schools, confusion over actual goals and purposes, and a tendency toward a separation into two unequal class divisions within the public schools. Our nation has sadly become a society where many people are concerned only for themselves with little concern for those who are less fortunate.

One of the most significant issues raised in public education in recent years is the radical difference that exists in funding levels between wealth and poor school districts. “Many states have allotted educational funding related to tax revenues, and this has determined a higher level of educational spending in wealthy neighborhoods and a much lower level of spending for inner-city poor and rural poor communities” (Frady 15). A number of states have considered and implemented plans for the equalization of school funding, but this has not come without considerable opposition. Though individuals in low-income neighborhoods areas have defined this equalization as a positive process for improving urban schools, wealthier suburban populations have complained that this will take away funding necessary to maintain programs that are already in place.

“The basic formula for educational spending today is determined by a program called the "foundation program (Kozol 238)". The way that the program works is a local tax based on the value of homes and businesses within a given district raises the initial funds for schools. Then to compensate poorer districts, the state provides sufficient funds to lift the poorer districts to an estimat...

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The lack of equal quality education is producing a generational cycle of poverty in the country that is casting a gloomy burden on our schools and society for the future. Many individuals stay in poverty because they don't know there is a choice and have no one to teach them how to overcome it and become successful. Schools are the only place where students can learn the choices of other social classes. The chances of them overcoming the heavy obstacles that await them without the skills the need are very slim. Their chances of being economically successful in today’s competitive society is small. Those who have had a more extensive and advantageous educational experience will continually overshadow them. “The children of poverty and those who are products of inner city schools will most likely remain prisoners of an extensive legacy of economic and social exile” (Gross 185). The neglect for the educational needs of the children in urban schools threatens the economic well being of the nation. Unless the inequalities in education between suburban and urban schools are diminished, the schools and their students will always be victims of the divisions of race and class.