Public Education and Racial Inequality
Racial inequity is a problem that extends beyond our schools. We must find a better way, a better system, by which to effect our current period. Many of these solutions begin within the schooling system itself. This illustration, released in 2021, is a representation and illustration based on The Giving Tree by Shell Silverstein, and provides a further insight on the problems which face those who are in inequal positions.
In our education system, we often give equal amounts of money per student, and therefore end up believing we are giving equitable resources to each student. In reality, however, we are actually giving far too much to less fortunate communities, especially those in inner-city schools. When we specifically focus on the amount of money given per student, we even see that students in inner-city schools recieve on average $2100 less per student (Bellan, 2021) and therefore recieve lower quality education due to problems funding teachers and other resources.
Going further, many of these student are much poorer than those who go to smaller, more rural schools (NCES 2022). Therefore, they also have much lower access to resources that kids from rural schools may have access to.
One of the major criticisms of Ruth's piece is that it insights a fixing of the current system, rather than tearing down and restructuring the system to be more equitable. This is something that most others agree with, and would mean an addition of more than likely many resources that kids from rural schools may not get access to due to their higher liklihood to already have those additional resources available through other means (adult supervision, educational tutoring, etc.) Most importantly, we need to focus on what this does for a child.
Schools provide an infinitely important resource for childhood development. When it comes to the development of the child, education has a significant impact on multiple factors of a child’s development. Obviously, the child, now a student, learns things at school, but beyond that children learn social skills, such as morals, professionalism. And proactive behaviors[1]. Furthermore, development of education is important largely in inner-city schools because the performance of students in education reflects their ability to perform outside of school. This is impacted by things such as their participation in afterschool activities, which is sometimes unavailable to students who belong to lower income households[2], which means that a higher investment in our public education system could in theory lead to a higher impact of schools on the lives of children through providing stimulating activities which would get kids off the streets during after school hours, as well as providing important adult supervision, which many low income students do not have due to parents needing to work long hours to support the family. Along with this, the application of money to the school system to help it create a larger position in the overall function of a child’s life would allow for parents to work more guilt free, as well as take away a major stressor in the parent’s lives[3] [4] [5].
The main difference between the children of urban and rural life is their liklihood to already have access to these resources. Urbanites typically wont, while rural persons will typically be more likely to have access to them.
[1] USBLS, “Education Pays,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 8, 2022), https://www.bls.gov/emp/chart-unemployment-earnings-education.htm.
[2] Nancy A. Gonzales et al., “Family, Peer, and Neighborhood Influences on Academic Achievement among African-American Adolescents: One-Year Prospective Effects,” American Journal of Community Psychology 24, no. 3 (1996): pp. 365-387, https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02512027.
[3] Jonathan Crane, “The Epidemic Theory of Ghettos and Neighborhood Effects on Dropping out and Teenage Childbearing,” American Journal of Sociology 96, no. 5 (1991): pp. 1226-1259, https://doi.org/10.1086/229654.
[4] Kristin Blagg and Alexandra Tilsley, “School Funding: Do Poor Kids Get Their Fair Share? - Urban Institute,” ed. Benjamin Chartoff and Elizabeth Forney, Urban Institute (Urban Institute, May 2017), https://apps.urban.org/features/school-funding-do-poor-kids-get-fair-share/.
[5] Dana Mitra, “Pennsylvania’s Best Investment: The Social and Economic Benefits of Public Education,” Education law center, June 27, 2011, https://www.elc-pa.org/resource/pennsylvanias-best-investment-the-social-and-economic-benefits-of-public-education/.