American Schools Are Failing For Minority Students

Within the United States everyday many people from different races experience discrimination within every aspect of there lives. One aspect is within the school systems that they are having to attend. The funding between the school systems in the United States and in different areas within those states has a large gap. This gap was so large that within the, “The Atlantic” a credible news article wrote about how race within the schools influences how much that school is going to receive funding. In the article called, “ The Data Dre Damaging: How race Influences School Funding” it states, “That means that no matter how rich or poor the district in question, funding gaps existed solely based on the racial composition of the school. Just the increased presence of minority students actually deflated a district’s funding level” (White). If this is true what is to say that every school in America is still doing this kind of discrimination. This kind of discrimination on needs to end immediately. Just because these young children are growing up in the poorer sections of town doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t have the same rights as other kids. Every child in America should have the same access to a quality education.

With landmark Supreme Court decisions in regards to education such as Brown v Board of Education, which made segregation within schools illegal, one would be inclined to believe that modern schools are void of any inequality. However, at a deeper glance, it is apparent that there is a glaring inequality within public school systems at the national, statewide, and even district-wide level. Such an inequality has drastic results as the education one receives has a high correlation to the college they will attend, and the job they will work. It is in society's best interest that public school systems be improved to equally supplement students with the tools necessary to succeed. While the public school system aims to reduce the inequality within it, they have proven ineffective in guaranteeing children of all races and economic classes an equal education.

The United States is a country based on equal opportunity; every citizen is to be given the same chance as another to succeed. This includes the government providing the opportunity of equal education to all children. All children are provided schools to attend. However, the quality of one school compared to another is undoubtedly unfair. Former teacher John Kozol, when being transferred to a new school, said, "The shock from going from one of the poorest schools to one of the wealthiest cannot be overstated (Kozol 2)." The education gap between higher and lower-income schools is obvious: therefore, the United States is making the effort to provide an equal education with questionable results.

Diane Ravitch, an “educational historian”, answers four questions in her book, Reign of Error. Is American education in crisis? Is American education failing or declining? What is the evidence for reform being promoted by the government and adopted by many states? What should we do to improve our schools and the lives of our children? According to Ravitch, the “crisis” concerning American education is actually a myth. In this book, she addresses myth after myth providing adequate clarity and information. She looks deep into the facts and brings to light what is actually happening in education in America in the following areas: test scores, achievement gaps, graduation rates, teachers and test scores, merit pay, charter schools, virtual school, government involvement of failing schools. In the latter chapters she offers specific solutions with detailed plans and recommendations to preserve and improve American education. Ravitch’s thesis is that American public education must be protected against government privatization and that we must work together to improve our schools. I couldn’t agree more with Ravitch. Government involvement in education has negatively impacted education since the passing of NCLB. Our focus has changed from being innovative teachers to cookie cutter teachers. Government officials should not make decisions without advice from educational professionals. We must all work together to make education work.

Since the 1980s, charter schools have allowed families to exercise school choice, a practice that had begun a few decades earlier when parents preferred to control their children’s education because of religious views or racial prejudices. As dissatisfaction with the performance public schools grew during the late 20th century, parents called on government to subsidize an arrangement where children could receive adequate education outside of the traditional public school system. Thus, two major school choice devices emerged: charter schools, privately run schools that receive public funding, and tuition vouchers, which cover some or all of tuition at participating private schools.

Although the statistics are more than 10 years out of date, the reality of America school segregation has not changed. The barely functional buildings, lack of up to date text books (or in many cases any text books), overcrowded classes, non-existent lab and computer equipment, and low paid teachers create a situation of despair that leads to a drop out rate of more than 50% in many districts. And even those who graduate are

After reviewing the Government laws and policies that have been in placed and replaced in history and more currently to contribute and correct the issue. The most important question of all remains. Why does the Achievement Gap still exist? According to former Secretary of Education John King (2016) “Black and Hispanic students continue to lag behind their White peers in achievement and graduation rates.”After so many attempts made by the Government to close the Gap and create equality, clearly there is something that is not being addressed across American Public Schools. Frederica Wilson (2013) former state senate member stated in the Brown vs Board Documentary There is such a difference in going to one school in one community and going to another in another community. Why don't we tackle that problem instead of testing the students predicting they will fail, watching them fail and denying them a good life?”The question now that remains how exactly are the schools different in different communities?

Failing-School Choice- If a school is not performing well parents have the choice to send their child to a different school this giving more options to parents

America’s education system is increasingly being criticized for it not functioning properly and failing our students. In fact, this notion is so widely believed that when typing ‘American education system’ on a search engine, two of the three predictive texts attempt to complete this phrase with words that have a negative connotation, such as ‘failing’ and ‘flaws’. The internet, newspapers, television, etc. are all saturated with criticisms of the American school system and solutions for this important issue. Taking a much different approach, award-winning educator and author of Against School, John Gatto insists that the school system is not failing at all, because it is not actually meant to educate, but to house children for “schooling.” Quite the contrary is succeeding in its true purpose.

Many schools in the Unites States are far behind compared to other countries. School systems are corrupt in many ways causing the children who want to achieve in their academic goals fall behind. Parents are starting to fear about what school will live up to their standards of education. Unfortunately, students do not have a choice to be always put into private schools because of financial problems. Therefor, these students are then placed in their local public school that could or could not be succeeding academic standards.

Is the educational system in America as bad as some make it out to be? This is the question at hand as many feel our progress in preparing our children for the future is inadequate or “out of date”. This has been fueled by the political agenda of politicians as they attempt to misconstrue the public by stating facts and other statistical data that may be used out of its original context. (Possibly insert a sentence with a politician’s fictitious claim) Likewise, it has become a popular tactic to use test scores as a benchmark to compare the United States to other countries to scare the public into believing their children aren’t being sufficed in their learning needs. In addition to this, perverted statements that go to the extreme of blaming

There are three inevitable things in life if you have kids: taxes, death, and sending your kid to school. When most families move, they look for things like distance from their work, the class and safeness of the neighborhood the house is in, and the quality of the school their kids would be attending. Parents want to see their kids be successful and education plays a key role in their future achievements. The obstacles most people encounter is that they cannot decide which school to send their kids. They do not even know which type of school to send them. Public schools seem to be the route that many families opt to choose. Public schooling consists of two main types: grade schools, such as district controlled school, or charter schools. Most parents often wonder “which school has been proven more” or “which school is right for my

In American two out of three eighth-graders can’t read proficiently and for African American and Hispanic students across the country dropout rates are close to 40 percent and those were just two of the many ways the American Education System has failed its members. Education in the United States is provided by public schools and private schools. Public education is universally required at the kindergarten through twelfth grade level. Budgets and policies are set through locally elected school boards, who have jurisdiction over individual school districts. State governments set overall educational standards, often mandate standardized tests for K–12 public school systems, and supervise, usually through a board of regents, state colleges and universities. Funding for public schools come from the state, local, and federal government. However, with all the aforementioned points of intervention is a new issue which only serves to reinforce my thesis that the American Public Education System or APES for short is a static system in which over governing, overcrowding, and forced assimilation have run rampant.

Due to the high cost of private schooling, one would think that student achievement would increase in this setting, however, this is not the case. An article from Brookings.edu states claims

Education in the United States is now declining. Although our universities are top notch, our lower education public schools are struggling more than ever to compete with the international schooling system. Some propose a voucher plan that would allow certain parents a small choice in the school their children are able to attend. This voucher would be used for tuition along with other costs at a school the parent chooses, but public schools would charge tuition and remain competitive with other schools to