Educational Inequality in the U.S. Public Schools
04 / 15 / 2014
Speaking of education, our kids are told to join public schools if they could not afford the private ones. But are the public schools equal to private schools? I do not think so. Public schools are actually segregated and unequal. Our system is responsible for this and blamed for being unfair in providing an equal opportunity to all learners. We “are creating an entire generation of incompetents” by this savage inequality. (Kozol 72.)
Before we look for an educational progress in any public school, we should first provide them with essential needs. Public schools are not equal to private schools. They are also not equal within themselves. A public school in certain district is sometimes better than the public school of the neighboring district. It depends on how rich the district is. For instance, in St. Louis City, classes in public schools are filled with 35 to 40 or even more while in some rich district schools are up to 15. Equipment is outdated compared to others’. Textbooks, labs, rooms, closets, bathrooms, and chairs are so old in public schools. “But our problem are severe. I don’t even know where to begin. I have no materials with the exception of a single textbook given to each child. If I bring in anything else – books or tapes or magazines – I pay for it myself.” (Kozol 29.) This is what one of St. Louis public schools teachers said. Who is going to be affected by such inequality? Poor kids, of course. They are the ones who attend public schools. The state requires us to go to our district public schools unless we have money to go to the private ones. Thus, “by requiring attendance but refusing to require equity, effectively requires inequality.” (Kozol 56.)
The most noticeable reason behind such inequality among these public schools of different districts is the way that our schools get funded. Public schools in the United States are initially funded by the tax that is imposed on local property. In addition, the state and federal governments are also funding them, but not that much; specifically, for the federal government that funds a very little portion of public education expenses (Kozol 54.) Property tax depends on the value of one’s home. So the public schools in a rich district will definitely get a good amount of funding that reflects the value of the district’s people’s property. In contrast, poor districts do not have that expensive property and they do not pay that much taxes as rich people do. In turn, public schools in those poor districts suffer from a lack of funding which affects the quality of their education. The state is aware of that and tries to solve this problem by dedicating additional funds (not from property tax) to cover almost half of the public education needs. But it is still hard to compete the rich district schools for several reasons. In poor districts or cities like St. Louis City, the state is also required to cover other expenditures that are usually higher than in any rich city. For instance, the expenditure of police is higher because such cities are higher in crime. Fire department expenditure is also higher because poor cities properties are subject to fire greater than rich cities properties due to the dilapidated housing and substandard wiring. It is also reasonable in such poor cities that public health expenditure is higher than any other cities because people cannot pay for private hospitals (Kozol 56.) This financial gulf between rich and poor districts creates a huge inequality between their public schools.
Racism, class difference, and ethnicity can also play a role in shaping educational inequality among the public schools. Most middle-class people are not willing to let their children attend public schools with working-class children and/or African-American children. They think that those children will probably lower the standards of any school they attend. Jonathan Kozol had well portrayed this issue in his book Savage Inequality when he mentioned the story of Dearborn Park project (Kozol 60.) A public housing project known as Hilliard Homes was requesting the school board to build a new school for their children. The board did not accept this request. Years after, a middle-income condominium development called Dearborn Park was built close to Hilliard Homes. Many of Dearborn Park residents were affluent white. They requested what Hilliard Homes residents requested before. Their request was honored by the board this time and the school was soon constructed. Now the school was built but the poor Hilliard children still could not attend it. The Dearborn parents have the political power to “convince” the school board on entering Dearborn’s children to the new school and keeping the Hilliard’s children out until third grade – “by which time, of course, the larger number of these poorer children will be at a disadvantage and will find it hard to keep up with the children who were there since kindergarten.” (Kozol 61.) It could be also a “race” issue since those poorer children were all black. Many middle-class people (white) use the term Sinkhole when they oppose funding Chicago’s poor children (Kozol 53.) It is not just the regular people but also officials who sometimes use racist insinuations when it comes to poor black children. For instance, the governor of Chicago said, “We can’t keep throwing money into a black hole.” (Kozol 53.) Some people believed that this does not mean a slur against the African-American race, but others thought of it as a racist insinuation against them. Whichever it is, race, class, and ethnicity are never far from shaping educational inequalities in our public schools.
There are also other factors that contribute in making public schools in poorer districts more segregated and unequal. Examples of those factors are “Magnet School” and “Selective School”. These two kinds of schools are also public schools, but they have special criteria and instruction that not all students can apply to. Gifted students or those who have high grades, no matter where they live, can apply to such schools. Imagine when such students leave their district schools to join selective or magnet schools, who will remain in the those poorer district schools? They will be more segregated, and thus more unequal schools that never deserve to be attended by learners.
Public schools in the United States are victims of financial gulf between the rich and poor cities. If we need to talk about why most kids in poor public schools fail and never graduate, we should bravely put our finger on the biggest reason. We should blame our system that creates unequal opportunities among the learners. Our public schools are segregated and unequal at all. This is what Jonathan Kozol wanted to say in Savage Inequality.
Works Cited
Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York: HarperPerennial, 1992. Print.
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04 / 15 / 2014
Speaking of education, our kids are told to join public schools if they could not afford the private ones. But are the public schools equal to private schools? I do not think so. Public schools are actually segregated and unequal. Our system is responsible for this and blamed for being unfair in providing an equal opportunity to all learners. We “are creating an entire generation of incompetents” by this savage inequality. (Kozol 72.)
Before we look for an educational progress in any public school, we should first provide them with essential needs. Public schools are not equal to private schools. They are also not equal within themselves. A public school in certain district is sometimes better than the public school of the neighboring district. It depends on how rich the district is. For instance, in St. Louis City, classes in public schools are filled with 35 to 40 or even more while in some rich district schools are up to 15. Equipment is outdated compared to others’. Textbooks, labs, rooms, closets, bathrooms, and chairs are so old in public schools. “But our problem are severe. I don’t even know where to begin. I have no materials with the exception of a single textbook given to each child. If I bring in anything else – books or tapes or magazines – I pay for it myself.” (Kozol 29.) This is what one of St. Louis public schools teachers said. Who is going to be affected by such inequality? Poor kids, of course. They are the ones who attend public schools. The state requires us to go to our district public schools unless we have money to go to the private ones. Thus, “by requiring attendance but refusing to require equity, effectively requires inequality.” (Kozol 56.)
The most noticeable reason behind such inequality among these public schools of different districts is the way that our schools get funded. Public schools in the United States are initially funded by the tax that is imposed on local property. In addition, the state and federal governments are also funding them, but not that much; specifically, for the federal government that funds a very little portion of public education expenses (Kozol 54.) Property tax depends on the value of one’s home. So the public schools in a rich district will definitely get a good amount of funding that reflects the value of the district’s people’s property. In contrast, poor districts do not have that expensive property and they do not pay that much taxes as rich people do. In turn, public schools in those poor districts suffer from a lack of funding which affects the quality of their education. The state is aware of that and tries to solve this problem by dedicating additional funds (not from property tax) to cover almost half of the public education needs. But it is still hard to compete the rich district schools for several reasons. In poor districts or cities like St. Louis City, the state is also required to cover other expenditures that are usually higher than in any rich city. For instance, the expenditure of police is higher because such cities are higher in crime. Fire department expenditure is also higher because poor cities properties are subject to fire greater than rich cities properties due to the dilapidated housing and substandard wiring. It is also reasonable in such poor cities that public health expenditure is higher than any other cities because people cannot pay for private hospitals (Kozol 56.) This financial gulf between rich and poor districts creates a huge inequality between their public schools.
Racism, class difference, and ethnicity can also play a role in shaping educational inequality among the public schools. Most middle-class people are not willing to let their children attend public schools with working-class children and/or African-American children. They think that those children will probably lower the standards of any school they attend. Jonathan Kozol had well portrayed this issue in his book Savage Inequality when he mentioned the story of Dearborn Park project (Kozol 60.) A public housing project known as Hilliard Homes was requesting the school board to build a new school for their children. The board did not accept this request. Years after, a middle-income condominium development called Dearborn Park was built close to Hilliard Homes. Many of Dearborn Park residents were affluent white. They requested what Hilliard Homes residents requested before. Their request was honored by the board this time and the school was soon constructed. Now the school was built but the poor Hilliard children still could not attend it. The Dearborn parents have the political power to “convince” the school board on entering Dearborn’s children to the new school and keeping the Hilliard’s children out until third grade – “by which time, of course, the larger number of these poorer children will be at a disadvantage and will find it hard to keep up with the children who were there since kindergarten.” (Kozol 61.) It could be also a “race” issue since those poorer children were all black. Many middle-class people (white) use the term Sinkhole when they oppose funding Chicago’s poor children (Kozol 53.) It is not just the regular people but also officials who sometimes use racist insinuations when it comes to poor black children. For instance, the governor of Chicago said, “We can’t keep throwing money into a black hole.” (Kozol 53.) Some people believed that this does not mean a slur against the African-American race, but others thought of it as a racist insinuation against them. Whichever it is, race, class, and ethnicity are never far from shaping educational inequalities in our public schools.
There are also other factors that contribute in making public schools in poorer districts more segregated and unequal. Examples of those factors are “Magnet School” and “Selective School”. These two kinds of schools are also public schools, but they have special criteria and instruction that not all students can apply to. Gifted students or those who have high grades, no matter where they live, can apply to such schools. Imagine when such students leave their district schools to join selective or magnet schools, who will remain in the those poorer district schools? They will be more segregated, and thus more unequal schools that never deserve to be attended by learners.
Public schools in the United States are victims of financial gulf between the rich and poor cities. If we need to talk about why most kids in poor public schools fail and never graduate, we should bravely put our finger on the biggest reason. We should blame our system that creates unequal opportunities among the learners. Our public schools are segregated and unequal at all. This is what Jonathan Kozol wanted to say in Savage Inequality.
Works Cited
Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York: HarperPerennial, 1992. Print.
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