We need to stop educational inequalities

 Sarah Elgohary Christine Otto

Sociology 101 4/22/13 

This article was very interesting to me for many reasons. I have always known that there is global inequality in the world’s education system let alone in the United States of America. I just did not know how severe social Inequalities of the education system were In the United States. The statistics of the different populations of poor children in schools, the overcrowded classes and the students in the comparison between rich and schools really surprised me. In my opinion, school funds are more unfairly, unequally, distributed to, poorer populations such as African-Americans Hispanics , and Asians who live in poor neighborhoods than rich people who live in Riverdale, Bronx mostly because of racism and sexism. Even though, I know that school funding is greatly influenced by the economic status of certain areas where people live in society, and I do agree with Jonathan Cool argument that schools stack the deck against poor children “, unlike Jonathan Cool however, I do believe that money is the only reason for lack of school funding and educational inequality in many public schools. I believe that there are many factors that have led to lack of school funding and educational inequality such as race, sexism, one’s culture, social status religion and many other factors. That is why I believe Jonathan Cool’s argument on the problems, education inequality of inner-city schools is incomplete. Improving student performance requires not merely spending more tax money but also getting parents to take more interest in their children’s educational progress. Kozol, who concedes that equalization might alienate affluent parents, shows that spending more tax money might help poor schoolchildren; he offers no airtight case either for funding equalization as a panacea, or against such remedies as choice plans or magnet schools. Yet by letting readers hear the voices of studious, articulate inner-city teenagers, he combats stereotypes; by challenging comfortable assumptions, he contributes to public debate I Agree with Jonathan kozol that it is the job of our schools, we like to believe is to give children a chance to develop their abilities and complete with others for our in society .but has the game been “fixed “right from the start? In my opinion the” savage inequality of economic status social status, racism sexism and culture division of class differences are obviously not equal. Kozo1’s analysis proves once again that our social stratification system is based on capitalism is a closed system .We are not a open system in which people are not socially mobile because of social inequality and class differences. I think we should be an open system in society.

In savage inequalities, Kozol, having visited many inner-city schools, he finds black and Hispanic schoolchildren to be isolated from white schoolchildren and shortchanged educationally. I think that is unfair It makes sad but. I never realized before I read this article that the gap between rich and poor school districts educational inequality is just as or maybe even bigger than the gap between rich and poor nations In global poverty In my opinion that is very sad to ------------me the gap between rich an Only by closing the gap between rich and poor school districts in the amount of tax money spent on education, Kozol contends, can we give poor minority children an equal chance. To show just how high are the barriers to learning arising from inadequate school funding, Kozol paints a bleak picture of severe overcrowding; dilapidated school buildings; a shortage of supplies and aids to learning; and teacher salaries too low to let a school either attract good teachers or do without substitute teachers. He repeatedly contrasts inner-city austerity with the bounty of suburban schools.

Kozol blames an unjust and uncaring society for inner-city children’s low levels of academic performance, high rates of dropping out of high school, classroom discipline problems, and low levels of college attendance or completion. Although the emphasis on societal guilt can be overdone, it has value: Learning about overcrowding in ghetto high schools makes the dropout phenomenon easier to understand. Some of the numbers and facts in the article were unbelievably astounding to me especially the examples of a very poor public school 261 in district 10 the capacity of students in 900 ,yet the actual size of the class is 1,300 students 

Then what about the children left behind in the places vividly evoked by Kozol, places like East St. Louis, Ill., ,? Children who attend schools with 40 or 50 kids to a classroom, a new teacher every few weeks, little or no art, music, foreign language, or advanced science courses, and too few books to go around. Poor Schools have one guidance counselor for every 930 students. Schools are in poor conditions with holes in the roof; schools with raw sewage in the basement; schools where more than 80 percent of the students drop out before graduation. I find the statics very shocking. I was really interested and shocked to find out how P.S 24 labeled blacks and Hispanics are put in special classes based on evaluations children are classified as EMR educable mentally retarded or TMR Trainable mentally retarded it was an outrage to me

Currently, schools are funded by local property taxes. In more wealthy areas where there are extravagant houses, big industry, and businesses, the taxes collected are more than efficient to fund their schools. Schools like P.S.24 in New York have a planetarium, where the gifted children “are designing their own galaxies.” Students in Cherry Hill have the “use of seven well- appointed ‘music suites’ ” (This contrasts greatly to schools in poorer cities where, even though citizens are taxed at higher rates, the tax base to support these schools is too low and inefficient. In some areas, like East St. Louis, most residents are on welfare, and what little industry they have attracted has been through tax exemption. This lack of funds leads to the terrible conditions of the neighborhood “spilling over into schools” in these poorer areas. Many of these schools have few toilets that work, textbooks enough for only half of the class, teachers that do not show up, holes in the ceilings, and “8th grade students that cannot add five and two.” Most of these poorer schools are located in urban areas where the children face enough problems outside of school to pull at anyone’s heartstrings. They suffer sickness that goes untreated caused by pollution and poisons from nearby industry, poor nutrition, and lack of dental care. “Children live with pain that grown-ups would find unendurable. These children deserve a beautiful school full of books, flowers, music, and working toilets, and teachers who inspire and nurture as much or maybe more than the students in wealthy communities. Without this, they have little chance to grow up to be happy, successful people and to escape the terrible conditions under which they must live every day.

The children are aware of the atrocities of their surroundings and that others have much better schools. This is seen as a racial issue to many because most of these poor, inner city districts are mostly black and Hispanic and the issue of desegregating these schools has been attacked ferociously by the wealthy districts that are mostly white. Children in these poorer schools often come from parents who were raised in similar areas. Their education levels are low and they often feel undeserving of better in the eyes of people with the power to change their situations and smooth the differences of this dual system. They feel that their children are unwanted by other schools, and are viewed as undeserving. Many times these parents lack the power and resources to demand change. Unfortunately, influential politicians and others with the power to change such things, often listen to the citizens who are the most powerful. These are those who fund campaigns and vote the most (which tends to be middle to upper class) instead of those who truly are in need of help, such as these people and their children. Without assistance this pattern of social reproduction will continue. Generation after generation will be taught inefficiently and doomed to repeat their ancestors’ plight. In addition, some of these schools are terribly overcrowded with classes far beyond practical numbers. In one school in the Bronx, “four kindergartens and a sixth grade class of Spanish speaking children have been packed into a single room”, and there is “a second grade bilingual class of 37”. The teachers’ abilities are undoubtedly unreasonably stretched to properly instruct in any roomful of this many very young children.  

Many argue that the reasons for these disparities in what the children become are not the schools, but the environment that the children come from and their parent’s attitudes. Though there is much truth to this, every child deserves the best opportunity to succeed. Schools are that area that we, as a society, have the most direct control over. “The school is a creature of the state, the home is not.” Having a quality school with dedicated teachers may be the only chance these kids have to escape their substandard environments.

The academic curriculum in these schools is often stripped down to provide room for test taking preparation. Because greater funds are given to the schools with higher test scores, teachers must teach to the test. However, often what are needed are greater funds in order to raise test scores the state “mandates higher scores. But it provides us with no resources” If these schools had the resources to provide richly, full academic curriculums like the wealthier schools the kids would be engaged in learning about the world enough that teaching them how to test would become unnecessary. These kids are not any less capable than kids in other schools, and with the right resources, could be just as successful. The amount we spent on kids was as variable as $2,000 to $19,000 per kid, per year in 1990 Does his send the message that some kids are not as valuable as others, and for what reason are these kids being held down?