Addressing Inequality Paper

I believe that our society is doing well at creating programs for children living in poverty to become just as successful and prepared as their middle-class peers. For example, the United States currently provides low income families access to Head Start programs. Head Start is a government funded program that offers families that live in poverty to have access to high quality day care services and prepare children from age three to five years for kindergarten and the upcoming school years. In addition to Head Start programs, our society created Early Head Start services which focuses on infants, toddlers, and parents. Early Head Start programs provides counseling services to low income families. Because Head Start programs and Early Head Start services impact low income families and children, I believe that teachers and counselors should encourage and motivate families and children to perform well in these programs so they can continue to be successful during their school

The question being posed here is important because everyone should have an equal opportunity to succeed in society and everyone should be experiencing upward mobility not just the rich and upper-middle class. By closing the class gap it will create a more equal playing field for everyone and give everyone an equal opportunity to succeed despite their starting point on the socioeconomic ladder. The question of closing the opportunity gap is relevant because it is one of the underlying topics of Our Kids and the solution the the question has something to do with the title of the book. Restoring the sense of “our kids” instead of “my kid” is a step towards closing the opportunity gap. If parents, teachers, and community leaders start catering to the best interests for the entire community instead of just one person or a few people the class gap will begin to decrease. This is not the only step towards closing the opportunity gap, there are more steps in the staircase to get to the goal of equal opportunity. Implementing programs like the “Supporting Healthy Marriage program” (Putnam, 244) and restoring the link between marriage and sex would create more stable family structure and this would contribute to closing the opportunity gap. By allowing parents to have more flexibility regarding parental leave, and thus allow parents to spend more time with their children, would boost childhood development. This small change in parenting would contribute tremendously in closing the opportunity gap. Recruiting better-trained teachers and an increase in the amount in funding that poor schools would diminish the opportunity gap and level the playing field for all of our kids.

The United States, as many believe, is the land of opportunity, however, when looking at individual states, towns, and cities, this popular slogan may seem false to some. Within each state, all schools, such as middle and high schools, may not receive or offer equity. In an effort to revel inequalities within school systems, I will discuss the differences between schools in my town, the apparent lack of public concern about schooling inequality, and what changes could be made in an effort to reduce schooling inequality.

Fifty years after the declaration of war on poverty, an increasing number of children still grow up in poverty in this country. Poverty is now more determinative than race as a predictor of student educational success (Reardon, 2013). The achievement gap between the poor and the more economically advantaged child has actually widened over the last three decades (Reardon, 2013). If we are to provide all children with equal and excellent educational opportunities, it is imperative that we utilize the most effective strategies and enhancements to overcome the educational disadvantages that poor children experience.

Wendy Kopp believed that it was the responsibility of everyone to stop children from being uneducated. As Wendy grew up she felt that since she was a woman there would be limits but as the years passed by she learned she wasn’t limited. She attended Princeton as a public policy major and was involved in many activities. She met a variety of people during her college years and learned more about students who come from poor communities and found that they have lower academic achievement because they were less prepared for the challenges ahead. Wendy eventually used this same idea in her senior thesis.

When one thinks of the word “inequality”, some things that come to mind are racial inequality, gender inequality, economic inequality, marriage inequality, or social inequality. These inequalities have evolved into movements and revolutions, making strides for future generations to live in a nation that supports them. However, when it comes to making strides for our future generations to be successful, the same statement cannot be made. This is due to the fact that our nation and government aren’t concerned with the welfare and success of our present generation. One inequality that hasn’t delivered a sense of urgency to be tackled by our nation, and specifically our city of New York, is Education Inequality. Horace Mann, “The Father of American

The thought was by working with children at an early age it would provide them with the tools and encouragement to embrace life and find meaning for their own lives. This is a worthy challenge, however now I see the need to seek an active role on the macro level. Assisting people in embracing and cultivating their personal skills and qualities is exciting but without equal access and fair opportunity these same children could be doomed to an inevitable fate of being stuck in the system. There must be a change in people’s mindset regarding genuine poverty and the true struggle of American citizens, from the forsaken Native American reservations to the old mining towns in rural areas of American to the impoverished citizens in both urban and suburban America. These changes will not manifest until policies and laws are changed. It can only happen when people unite with a solid strategy to dismantle the personal kingdoms created by corporate America and the government, replacing them with a commitment to implementing programs and services that eliminate some of the inequities of the

In today’s day and age most people expect the educational system to be equal among all students; people expect these students to grow up and get a good job with the education they have been taught throughout the years. But how can this be achieved when the system is not even close to being equal or fair? In this world, there are schools in poverty and then there are more privileged schools. At the higher class schools, the students are given an amazing education with more supplies and funding, whereas at the schools in poverty it is the complete opposite. In Kandice Sumners TedTalk (2016), How America's public schools keep kids in poverty, she rants about this exact topic. She has seen both worlds of the school controversy. She’s been to a high-class school and learned so much from them as a student, but now she teaches at a school in poverty and only wishes that she could have the same exact supplies and funding for her students. There is obviously a

Impoverished parents tend to live in towns with underfunded school districts. They are unable to give their children the proper resources to exceed. Those children go on to struggle to a livable wage, some of them even turning to crime to make ends meet. The government attempting to shorten the gap of children growing up in poverty and those growing up in the middle class. Bargain (2012) describes a few ways the government can make a difference for spending on children. The government can give cash to parents to spend on kids, which has been shown to be ineffective as only a small portion goes to the kids. More effectively, the government can create subsidies for children’s products, which has been shown to increase spending on children. Cascio (2013) speaks about how to close the education gap. Creating cash incentives for schools to increase test scores through programs such as No Child Left Behind has been shown to have some effect on helping bridge the educational gap. However, not enough is being spent to make a large enough

Despite dipping below ten percent between the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the income gap in the United States has climbed steadily over the last fifty years. From its low point in 1973, the wealthiest Americans’ income share now exceeds even that which they held in 1928, on the eve of the Great Depression. Experts have pointed to several potential culprits, including the underrepresentation of lower- and middle-class citizens in legislatures, the shrinking power of organized labor, the expanding power of organized business, and a tax system that seems to disproportionately favor those at the top at the expense of those on the bottom. These factors vary greatly in level of impact and the feasibility of potential solutions,

The book Unequal Childhoods explains a study conducted to prove the significance of social class. Annette Lareau presents the study highlighting two primary ways of parenting that ultimately affect how successful the child becomes as they transition into adulthood. These styles of parenting include Concerted Cultivation which is where parents put through kids through structured activities, and Accomplishment of Natural Growth which is emphasized through freedom and directives. While both styles of parenting have their benefits and their weaknesses, the educational system of the United States is built predominantly on Concerted Cultivation and middle class values, which in turn may negatively affect how children prepare for their transitions into adulthood. This imbalance in education can put students farther ahead and at the same time neglect children who don’t have the resources they need to keep up with the other students. There are a multitude of variables involved with helping students reach their full potential and become successful. Some of the big factors to a student’s success include the student 's socioeconomic background, how they “fit” into the educational system, how strong their relationships are with other people, and their ability to access resources. Creating an education that can accommodate students from all different backgrounds will empower students to reach their full potential.

Some of these include Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Earned Income Tax Credit, Food Stamps, Medicare, and Medicaid (Kelsey, lect. 09/28/15). Due to various budget cuts for these programs, the “government spending and funding which once benefitted society” no longer applies (Kelsey, lect. 10/05/15). Although it has been proven that “American government policy does reduce inequality by aiding the poor”, the U.S. “does less than any other advanced nation to reduce poverty through government benefits” (Fischer, 1996). Even though the United States is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, it seems to be failing in establishing laws and programs that help the poor. What is frightening, however, is that these policies are many times the ways in which class differences are reduced and how individuals escape poverty. Jesse and Cheryl for example would not have had access to higher education without the funding for some of these policies. The success of these educational policies is what allowed them to escape the cycle of poverty that many families face. The access to higher education is detrimental, because “educational attainment seems to be the key variable for upward mobility in the United States” (Giddens 2014). Therefore, by failing to implement the necessary funding and focus that education needs, the United States is failing many individuals to receive the opportunity of an education and escape their current economic situation. In other words, Putnam summarizes how “poor kids now are in much worse shape than their counterparts

I do believe that both dependency, and globalization theory are biased to a certain extent. As with dependency theory stating that the global inequality is caused by the rich nations holding down the lower nations. (Little, 2013) This would certainly have to biased on the whole aspect of what the theory states, the nation will have its own views and core values in play and will make sure they are upheld. Globalization theory I think is biased to an extent as some nations hold more power over the nations flow, and can restrict what they believe what is important and is not.

Early childhood education is one of the most important policy topics out there. Research has proven that the early years in childhood is a critical period for opportunity to develop a child’s full potential; as well as form academic, social, and cognitive skills that determine not only success in school but also their entire life (The White House). The right to a free, public education is guaranteed to all children in the United States. Early education is voluntary, and therefore some children are not given the opportunity to reach their full potential.

The lecture presented in class (Inequality in Education and Employment) was a particularly salient topic for me. As part of my Bachelor’s degree, in Philosophy, I was required to present and defend a thesis. My thesis was a defense of democracy from the problems of distributive justice. Over the course of two years, I spent countless hours reading, writing, and debating the fine points on inequality. Therefore, the subject matter is not something new for me, nor do I think there is a simple solution.