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An Inequality in Education
Throughout American history there have been many battles fought against inequality. This holds evident in subjects such as slavery, women's suffrage, racial segregation, and many more harsh injustices that have haunted this country, a country that was built on a belief that all of mankind is created equally. Though much has been done to reiterate this belief, like the thirteenth and nineteenth amendments, disparities are still very prevalent. In the public education system of America a cruel apartheid is apparent. Education is the stepping stone to living a successful life, a life that is prepared to contribute to the workforce or continue onto higher education after graduation. However, the sad fact remains that the percentage of students that do not graduate from school is higher than acceptable and the ones who drop out from high schools are mostly minorities. These students live in high poverty neighborhoods and funding of their schools is a fraction of what their counterparts receive. Therefore, students that are born into underprivileged circumstances are not granted equal opportunities to further their success creating a repetitive cycle that many are caught in.
This essay will be organized into three main topics. First, some history of segregation will be explained. In this section, ways that public schools have attempted to integrate students will be described as well. The final two topics will describe how funding in education is determined and the accomplishments of wealthy and impoverished schools will be compared. After learning of these topics the disparities in education will be clear.
History of Education
Prior to 1964, segregation was the way of life for Americans especially in the southern states. However, in 1954 a significant case was seen in the U.S. Supreme Court which questioned the segregation of public schools. In the case, Brown vs. Board of Education, Linda Brown was in third grade and was denied attendance to a school in Topeka, Kansas. She was refused because it was an all-white school and the doctrine, 'separate but equal' was cited for the excuse behind this. This case was taken to the highest of courts in America, the Supreme Court and the ruling came as a surprise to many:
"We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does...We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment" (National Archives and Records Administration).
In the years following this ruling, those who disagreed did so forcefully because there was a great deal of resistance in allowing black children to learn alongside of white students. The most notorious of these instances took place in Little Rock, Arkansas. There was a group of nine students that sought to attend a high school and were sent away because the governor refused to recognize the law against continuance of segregating schools. This is when President Eisenhower federalizing units of the National Guard to escort these students to school for the remainder of the school year in 1957.
In fact, there was more done by the government to support integration of students in the decade that followed the Brown vs. Board of education ruling than in recent history. According to The Leadership Conference, public schools in the southern states had a high increase of enrollment of minority students into schools with mostly white students. However, schools in the northern states lagged by nearly 20%. Though there were pushes in the 1970s and 80s to force desegregation by busing students to other districts nothing seemed to be effective. Even though many experts agreed that integrating students would be highly beneficial the movement slowed down drastically. The apartheid still exists and funding for schools is one of the main reasons for it.
A Look at Wealthy Schools
The federal government only provides a fraction of the funding for public schools. This is why the backing for schools is based upon the property taxes in the surrounding area, "up to 90% of the school district budget is from residents' taxes" (Sauter et al. 8). Of course, this would mean that students from wealthy homes receive a significant amount more than those who live in poverty stricken communities. Even though the difference in funding between affluent schools and poor schools is overwhelming the budget cuts that have occurred in previous years has even left these schools seeking more money. Therefore, schools in even the wealthiest of neighborhoods have turned to fundraising through the Parent Teacher Association (PTA.) These parents set out to raise additional money and often times will personally write a check, according to the article Way Beyond Bake Sales: The $1 Million PTA. These parents are heavily involved in their children's education and will do whatever necessary to give them a winning advantage. This article explains how much one school in New York raised in 2009, "...parents' association brought in $1.57 million in that same period: about $800,000 in fund-raising, the other $700,000 from the fees the association charged for the after-school programs" (Spencer). This money is supplementary to what the school has already gotten from the federal government, state, and property taxes. However, that is not all the PTAs are responsible for, "Principals at these schools say their parents' associations do more than collect money; they work in tandem with the administration throughout the year to come up with monetary solutions, routinely swapping items from one budget to the other so that principals can use money for full-time staff while the PTA covers the expenses allowed by the Education Department" (Spencer). These parents are able to devote an enormous amount of time to ensure that their students receive only the best.
Consistent with Sauter, Allen, Nelson, and Hess's findings, the richest American school district in 2012 is Scarsdale Union Free School District in New York. Only 35.7% of the household incomes in this district are under $200,000 and the median income is $238,000. These numbers translate to the yearly spending for each student of $26,742! How exactly do these numbers equal a higher quality of education? After scrolling through pictures of the schools in this district it is easy to see that this district takes pride in the appearance of their schools. The schools in the Scarsdale district are attractive buildings on well-kept campuses and they seem to be very inviting. The district's website boasts about high performance through a wide variety of programs available to students including sustainable gardening, orchestra, and high achieving athletics. Many studies show a correlation between participation in extra-curricular activities and higher achievement in general studies like math, reading, and science. Not only are the students able to partake in clubs like these but the materials in classrooms are abundant and sophisticated. Through high funding these schools are able to purchase updated computers for every classroom, brand new books, a sufficient amount of paper and pencils, projectors, clean whiteboards, etc. All of these materials are conducive to learning. Also, the amount of time parents can allot to their children can have an impact on the success of students, "One reason for the growing gap in achievement, researchers say, could be that wealthy parents invest more time and money than ever before in their children (in weekend sports, ballet, music lessons, math tutors, and in overall involvement in their children's schools)...(Tavernise). However, nothing is more important when anticipating a student's success than the quality of the teachers the district employs. The option is clear to many teachers when choosing where they will work because the salary, benefits, and ability to succeed greatly outweigh those of low income schools. This is not to say that every teacher will choose a wealthy school over others but there are several more incentives for high quality teachers in well renowned districts. Teachers are also grouped based upon their individual class test scores which means that success in their career will be more attainable.
As far as test scores go, not many schools can compare. "Residents that live in wealthy school districts have among the best schools in the nation based on graduation rates, test scores and independent ratings of academic success" (Sauter et al. 8). These students are the ones who move onto higher education with ease and succeed at top colleges around the country. In turn, the adults that these students are molded into contribute to the workplace and often times become CEOs, politicians, lawyers, etc.. Most of these adults will be able to provide the same type of education for their next generations which is a rewarding opportunity.
A Look at Impoverished Schools
Looking at the other end of the spectrum, property taxes in low-income neighborhoods are drastically less. In the most severe of cases family incomes are often times less than what wealthy people pay in property tax. These schools are struggling to compete with schools that have nearly tripled the amount of per pupil spending. Through education reforms that have stemmed from the No Child Left Behind Act schools with subpar test scores were under even more pressure to turn their performance around or face tough consequences like the closing of schools. The one thing most struggling schools have in common is insufficient funding.
The research that listed Scarsdale Union Free School District in New York also released the five poorest school districts. The second most deprived of these school districts is Monticello Independent School District in Kentucky where almost 40% of the population falls below the poverty line. "As a result, residents contribute just 8% to funding the district's schools, or $892 per student. Only 60% of adults in the district have a high school diploma and 6.3% have a bachelor's degree. On the Kentucky Core Content Tests, Monticello students were well below state proficiency levels on math and social studies" (Sauter et al. 8). The majority of monetary support for the students in this district comes from the federal government through the Title I program. This program aims to provide further assistance in neighborhoods that are struggling but in 2012 the per-pupil spending for Monticello is $9,964. This is not even one-third of the $26,742 the rich kids are getting. These families do not have the extra money to write a check at the beginning of every year or the time to fundraise one million dollars to support their children. These are the families that often times have multiple jobs, disabilities that prevent them from working, or lack of a quality education.
The underlying theme of these impoverished schools is more often than not the students are black or Hispanic, "43% of black and Hispanic students attend schools with poverty rates over 80%, compared to 4% of whites" (McArdle, Osypuk). The city with the most segregation in education is Chicago, Illinois. Segregation has been a huge concern for Chicago schools since the 1980s when the government ordered that it needed to be addressed. Although there have been many attempts to integrate the schools the fact still remains the variation of students was at 82.3% in 2009. In the past 15 years, Chicago Public School district has closed or imposed a 'turnaround' on several schools. According to Chicago School Board Approves School Closings, Turnarounds, the school board voted in favor of closing seven schools while enforcing a turnaround plan on ten other schools. In this turnaround plan all of the staff of the schools would be fired yet the students would remain, almost like giving the students a new type of pedagogy to learn from. Notice that all of the teachers would be let go whether or not they are performing at a high standard or not. One of these schools in particular is Carter G. Woodson South Elementary School. The Chicago Public Schools website states that 97.3% percent of its attendance was black children and the other 2.7% were Hispanic in the 2011-12 school year. Out of these students, 91.3% are considered to be in the low-income range. This site also provides a scorecard for Woodson South Elementary School and not surprisingly this school was at a level three which means a 'low academic standing' and it is on probation. Only 50% of students met the state standards in 2011 which was a 3% drop from the previous year. Between 2010 and 2011, there was also nearly a 5% drop in reading comprehension and .5% in mathematics.
This is a school in desperate need of help and it could benefit from additional funding because the expenditure for each student is a meager $10,392. What could this money go to? Making sure those students have enough up to date books because in schools like this most of the text books are invalid and there is not even enough to go around. Not only do they not have a sufficient amount of books but they are also lacking in supplies like paper, pencils, markers, etc. and these are materials that one would believe every student should have. The most important thing that these students need, however, is high quality instruction. This includes teachers that are well educated and trained in the field they are teaching because often times they are placed into a subject area that they are not familiar with and training the educators in new pedagogical techniques. Or, schools like Woodson South could put supplementary financial help to use by hiring skilled instructors and providing them incentives that more affluent schools are able to offer. A simple change in funding can dramatically change the course of education and opportunities would be available to all students and this adjustment would not hinder the students who are in the rich school districts. "The Department of Education also found that to equal spending between wealthier and low-income schools would cost only about 1 percent of the average district's total spending. These extra resources would make a big impact, meaning an increase of between 4 percent and 15 percent to the budget for schools that serve high numbers of students who live in poverty" (Birch) The issue is that the government is unwilling to set new paths for these students because it would take away from politicians' own families. It seems as though nobody is willing to sacrifice even the smallest amount. "There is something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds an inner-city child only eight years old "accountable" for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the high officials of our government accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before"(Kozol 53). Change must come from a higher authority.
People say that America is the land of the free and home to endless opportunities, but should this not include everybody that calls the United States home? Many Americans boast about how far this country has come since the days of slavery and segregation but an incredible apartheid is still very apparent. In America it seems as though education is an opportunity that is available to everyone but that is simply not the case. For there to be such a great disparity in something as important in education is extremely troubling. Schooling is something that can change lives and when one life is made more successful an entire society can become greater.
