Class Division and education
This political cartoon shows how the rich are trying to give their kids an advantage over other students who do not have as much of an opportunity to succeed. Low income families do not have the resources to pay for their children to receive a better education, so the children attend bad public schools which creates inequalities (Peter Nicholson Cartoons) .
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De Facto Segregation
Although segregation in public schools is now unconstitutional by law, segregation still persists. The Department of Education found that 46% of Latinos and 38% of black students attend schools in which fewer than 10% of their classmates are white (Menchaca). One of the large reasons why schools do not have a lot of diversity is due to de facto segregation. De facto segregation is not enforced by law, but rather it is caused by living patterns. It is difficult for the government to tackle the problem of de facto segregation because it is caused by where people choose to live, not by laws or town rules. Some towns have tried to draw school lines based on race. However, a Supreme Court Case in 2007 made this voluntary desegregation plan unconstitutional (Richmond). The effects of attending a school without a lot of diversity are not well known. The bigger issue is that black and Latino students are also more likely to attend schools in poverty ridden areas.
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Facts About Education TodayIt is more difficult to keep good teachers in poor areas, so the students suffer from not receiving as good of an education (Menchaca). In addition, research has found that teachers expect less from their students when they teach in classrooms with primarily poor and black students. It is also found that there is a high correlation between schools with high poverty rates and high minority populations (Richmond). This leads to an escalating effect because without the proper resources to improve the education, students continue to perform poorly. In Nevada, children from low income families and minority students, such as African Americans and Hispanics, are two grade levels behind white and Asian students on the fourth grade reading exam. This gap in education does not only hold for Nevada (“Social Injustice: Our Public Education System Harms Low-income and Minority Students | Nevada News and Views”). There is a significant gap between the quality of education that different classes receive in many other states as well. One cause for the difference in education between the classes is that the lines to determine which school a child will attend are based on zip code which makes many schools across America not have students from different social classes attend public school because usually within one zip code, houses cost about the same amount. 1.7 million children in the United States attend schools with almost no children from low income families (“Social Injustice: Our Public Education System Harms Low-income and Minority Students | Nevada News and Views”).
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Is Education Fair Today?Since students from upper class families tend to have more educated parents, who want their children to be educated as well, many upper class families send their children to private schools in which their children will receive a better education. Due to this behavior, the divide between social classes persists, and it is difficult to overcome this divide (“Education”). Today, the quality of education that a child receives is determined by the class that he or she was born into, while in the 1960’s education was determined by the color of one’s skin. Over 55 years later, the education that a student receives is still determined by circumstances out of the student’s control, so it is important that one questions how far education has really come over the years.
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