Can Music Bridge The Economic Gap Education?

Resources that schools receive are different depending on the area the school is in. Students in low-income neighborhoods do not have the same opportunities as the students in higher income neighborhood. These underprivileged schools are overcrowded and does not have the means necessary to better the student’s education.

America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s

This means that the good schools can only take in a few students, the proverbial tip of the ice berg. The rest of the students are relegated to schools in which their parents have no faith at all. This is tantamount to dooming these students to failure and being completely unable to do anything about it. The decline in the level of education in the public school system has prompted a lot of parents to opt for private schooling for their children. The problem with this is, of course, finances. Another problem facing the schooling system is the lack of streamlining of services. A comparison is drawn between the schools in the poor neighborhoods and their equivalents in the rich neighborhoods. The difference is astronomical. There is absolutely no coherency between the levels of services being provided in these institutions. Thus, the education system appears to be skewed. This is a worst case scenario situation for a system that is supposed to provide children with equal opportunities at a better life in the

Research in the past decade on the widening gap of educational opportunities between lower and higher income families has shown that children enrolled schools that predominantly serve lower income families tend to have lower pedagogical success and more negative associations regarding the American education system.

Everyone has heard the saying “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” but few people think of schools when they here this phrase. The way our educational system is set up today benefits students in high income areas more than it helps students in low income schools. People in the United States like to think that anyone can achieve greatness if they try hard enough but getting an education is important and being in a well-funded school never hurts. In this country there is a profound lack of funding to our schools and there is an inequality when it comes distributing the funds and it only serves to help some and disadvantage others.

The correlation between low-income families and education has been overlooked by many including political leaders. They often believe that with better education, comes the less likelihood of poverty. The problem is that some children are already a part of a low-income family and have to work through all the conditions that it comes with. It’s highly more visible living in New Mexico than in our higher income counter states. As an educator and someone who is friends with other educators, it’s a problem we see all too often. A friend of mine works at an elementary that is predominantly low income and is constantly plagued with the difficulty it brings. Both behavioral issues and lower testing scores are apparent in

Children who live in poor urban neighborhoods are disproportionately likely to be members of racial and ethnic minority groups and are at greater risk for school failure

In article “Growing income inequality threatens American education”, authors Duncan & Murnane (2014) speaks about the widening of gaps for educational opportunities between children of low- and high- income. By improving the educational outcomes, it will help to overcome the difficult challenges. The increase of social and economic inequality by globalization and technology has exhausted families and neighborhoods from reforming schools. When reforming schools we must focus on opportunities of more money, more choices, more accountability and new organizational structures. There needs to be a look upon the consistency and quality of experience and instruction given to the students (p.13-14). The government could provide a government-funded program that focuses mainly on children who are from a low-income family. If the government reforms the school system, it would allow the students more opportunities to expand their experience of attaining

Children who live in areas of concentrated poverty never fare well. They often have low graduation rates and deal with constant violence. What happens to neighborhoods also happens to schools. Children succeed when their parents are capable of providing for them. When parents are unable to afford their own neighborhood advantages, their children start seeing the difference along racial and social barriers and embody it.

Low-income families provide less tax dollars to schools, which directly affects a school’s financial ability to provide resources to teachers and students. Also, larger class sizes could lead to more discipline referrals, which affect the culture of the classroom (Rowley et al., 2011). The role of teachers and family is crucial for student success. A teacher’s ability to show compassion, provide instruction that is relatable, and eliminate discriminatory behaviors, is essential in establishing a classroom culture that promotes learning. Parental involvement in their child’s education is essential, as well. According to Rowley and Wright (2011), “Economically disadvantaged neighborhoods expose children to behaviors and ideals that hinder academic progress” (p.

Poverty within a family or even a school can drastically hinder the level of education that can be given. For example, the Oklahoma schools budget cuts. Due to the decline in money, some teachers won’t be rehired leading to bigger class sizes, meaning less one on one time between students and the teacher. AP programs can be potentially cut, causing advanced kids to then sit in classes with kids who don’t care, therefore they have to learn slower. But budget cuts isn’t the only example. An education disposed inside the walls of a prestigious private school is more equipped than one presented inside the walls of a governmenttally owned public school. In his article, “The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools”, David Kirp, professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, writes, “public schools in such communities have often operated as factories for failure”. While his is talking about neighborhoods labeled as the lower class, no one can truly say that schools located in poverty, remotely receive the same education as school that are considered middle class. The statistic that proclaims the “average student loan debt nears $27,000” is alarmingly grim. This very statistic could potentially turn countless students away from succeeding a high education, just because they don’t have stacks of money to waste. It’s discouraging that money can limit the success a student can obtain in their

In 2013, 23.3% of the United States population consisted of children ages 0 to 17, 20% of those children lived in poverty and about 15.8 million children lived in households that were classified as food insecure (America’s Children: Key National Indicators Of Well-being, 2015). Perceptions of students with low socioeconomic status (SES) combined with other circumstances certainly play a role in their development and achievements. SES is conditional, imposed on people, used for comparisons, and based on economics, opportunity, and influence. When considering SES, individuals’ incomes, occupations, education, neighborhood, and political power are took into consideration. A school’s SES is determined by the neighborhood where it is located and by the SES of the children and families in attendance at that school (Socioeconomic Status, 2009).

Children from less-advantaged homes scored lower than the national average on national achievement scores in mathematics and reading. Children in impoverished settings are much more likely to be absent from school throughout their educational experiences, further increasing the learning gap between them and their wealthier peers. “While national high school dropout rates have steadily declined (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002), dropout rates for children living in poverty have steadily increased. Between 60 and 70% of students in low-income school districts fail to graduate from high school (Harris,

Department of Education, “documents that schools serving low-income students are being shortchanged because school districts across the country are inequitably distributing their state and local funds”. (Education, 2011). Students that come from low income families are not given the equal chance to get the education that students from high income families get. If students are not given the tools they need to be educated, then they will have a poor chance of succeeding in the world.

Research has shown that students from low socioeconomic status, or SES, academic skills have developed at a slower rate compared to other students from higher level SES groups. (Morgan, Farkas, Hillemeier, & Maczuga, 2009) Schools in which most students are apart of the low SES group tend to have communities with a higher rate of unemployment, low retention rate of competent teachers, and receive lower scores on the achievement tests. Due to the fact that a large number of quality of teachers are leaving the schools, the class sizes are larger. This prohibits teachers from being able to give individualized instruction to the students who are really struggling. Similarly, these schools located in regions that typically have a low SES have fewer resources. Typically children from these communities also receive less supervision by parents or adults.