Education Inequality In Education

Throughout decades, education inequality is still one of the most deliberate and controversial issues in the United States. Thus far, the privilege or right to receive education has not attained the level of equality throughout the nation. Poor districts obtain less educational funds while rich districts obtain more, which create an immense gap between the quality of schools in poor and rich areas. In other words, the education gap is the root of inequality in America. Inequality in education is linked to the major problems in the society. The need for studies to be done to find ways of overcoming these inequalities is very inevitable. The means of mitigating these inequalities are important for the entire world. This is something of great interest due to the fact that children need quality education which is a pillar for a guaranteed future. Generally speaking, the distinctions among races, genders, and classes in the society have caused the educational inequality in America.

An achievement gap between White students and students of color has been documented consistently at all education levels. Racial inequality in education is a serious problem in the United States. The Educational Longitudinal Study carried out in 2002 examined the relationship between race and composite reading and math scores among Black and White students. A total of 8,315 tenth grade students were included in this analysis. The results showed a difference in test scores between Black and White students with Whites scoring higher than Blacks (Rowely & Wright, 2011).The findings from this study suggest that discrimination based on race as well as family factors outside the school setting contribute to this difference

In this paper, I will explore the aspects regarding racial inequality pertaining to education in the United States of America. It has come to my attention, based on my observations, that race is a definitive factor that plays a role in establishing socioeconomic status. In relation to socioeconomic status, variables correlating with race that I will be focusing on, is the educational and wealth aspects. An individual’s level of education is pivotal to establishing stable, consistent wealth and vice-versa; the access for quality education is inconsistent primarily among minority races/ethnicities. According to historical records ranging from the year 1980 to 2000, between Whites, Hispanics, African-Americans, and Native Americans, the educational attainment gap is widening (Kelly 2005). Education is seen to be a source of respect and key to gaining a higher income, which transfers over to greater wealth. Acknowledging the slow expansion of the educational attainment disparities, I argue that the society’s perceptions and actions addressing race perpetuates and produces social inequalities by limiting opportunities despite “equal” resources, privileges, and rights through social policies that have contributed towards the quality of America’s education system.

Racial inequality persists in the current U.S. education system, despite nationwide efforts to promote the acceptance of students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Minority students, most notably African American and Latino, receive lower qualities of education compared to the Caucasian majority and are, as a result, at an indisputable disadvantage after primary and secondary education. According to a 2014 study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, “students of color in public schools are punished more and receive less access than white students to experienced teachers” (Abdul-Jabbar 31). Higher suspension rates and an increased frequency of corporal punishment use, allowed in 19 states as of 2014 according to Business Insider (Adwar), for minority students are two disciplinary examples of underlying racial discrimination with the current U.S. education system. Economic repercussions of racial inequality in education have been proven to include wealth gaps, higher unemployment rates, and financial instability for minorities in later life. Due to the prominence of racial segregation within schools, it remains a controversial point of debate in modern-day society, resulting in attempts such as affirmative action to establish racial equality in education. In Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), the United States Supreme Court declared affirmative action to be a justified policy in the

The education system in the United States has expanded over the years to prepare individuals for the demanding labor market that constitutes our society. It has shifted from the development of mere intellectual scholars to the development of intellectual scholars competitive enough for a work force that now requires a degree for entrance. As this system of education has expanded throughout the country, so has the reproduction of inequality. To explain the manner in which this system has been structured to achieve a gap of inequity among society’s affluent and disadvantaged members, conflict theorist Karl Marx claims that, “School institutions are intentionally designed to integrate individuals into an unjust society” (Brand lecture, January

One minority, through a multicultural context, that is at-risk is the Hispanic and Latino population, especially in the k-12 educational system. The focus of this paper will be discussed in a schooling framework within the United States education system. For Hispanics and Latinos in the United States, the educational experience is one of an accumulated disadvantage. The initial disadvantage often stem from immigrant parents and socioeconomic status and their lack of knowledge about the U.S. education system—where inadequate school resources and their weak relationship with their teachers continue to undermine their academic success (Schhneider, Ownes, & Martinez, 2007). As a result, Hispanic and Latino students continue to have the lowest

The Latino Education Crisis describes the cumulative disadvantages faced by too many children in the complex American school systems, where one in five students is Latino. Many live in poor and dangerous neighborhoods, attend impoverished and underachieving schools, and are raised by parents who speak little English and are the least educated of any ethnic group (Gándara and Contreras, 2010).

It is difficult for Latino Americans to succeed via United States’ education system. Like flowers planted in sterile soil, they can not bloom, not because they are unfruitful, but because the soil they are planted in is uncultivable. They are enrolled in learning environments that are unproductive. The infertility of their academic institutions is owed to the remnants of defacto segregation, lack of parental involvement in Latino students’ education, and the lack of Latino representation in school administrations. However, these issues regarding problems in the education system which have stumped the growth of Latino immigrants’ academic achievements, are merely an extension of the marginalization they have experienced all throughout their history in the United States. Essentially, the purpose of this essay is to argue that the path Latinos were placed on, upon arriving to America, does not provide them with the resources they need to mobilize academically.

It is not favorable to have a dominant population of individuals be incapable of succeeding as it heeds the growth of the society and perpetuates the popular idea that Latinos typically amount to nothing, when realistically the odds are often stacked against them. Socioeconomic status, cultural differences, and race are contributing factors that determine the success of these students. In this research, I aim to detail how these factors contribute to the gap, as well discuss methods for closing the gap to ensure equal education for all students regardless of these

The United States had gone through so many changes over the years and with each change we could say that we have become a better nation. Along the way to becoming a better nation, we have gone through highs and lows; however there seems to be a constant low that is now taking a toll on our children. The low may also end up having an effect on our future and that low is inequality in education among minority races and low income students. Low income students should be concerned with inequality in education in the United States because this means that their chances of continuing their education to obtain a better paying job in the future is significantly harder to do then students in higher income brackets.

Fiscal policy is the public policy domain that I am most interested in. But education policy is a strong secondary interest of mine, and recently, with the school closings in Detroit and Philadelphia and persistent problems in public education, I find urban policy to be extremely important. Additionally, as a conservative, seeing the increasing income inequality, in terms of solutions, I would like to analyze the deep root of the problem in lieu of a solution that I believe only scratches the surface such as increasing taxes on top earners. I do not think this will solve this issue because there is a disparity between the top 1% of earners and the top 1% of wealth owners and there is no real wealth tax. Wealth is what creates inequality in opportunity. Strengthening equal opportunity through K-12 education is where I would start looking answers.

Schools have regularly been places of political, racial and linguistic conflict between most the population and mainly the Latino/ Mexican groups. Latinos today are understated of schools such as high school and college graduation rates and even college entrance examinations. For Hispanics in the United States, the instructive experience is one of collected drawback. Numerous Hispanic understudies start formalized tutoring without the financial and social assets that numerous different understudies get, and schools are frequently poorly prepared to make up for these underlying aberrations (Rivera 2002).

Educational inequality is the difference in the learning results, or efficacy, experienced by students coming from different groups. Access and opportunity for education was not a right equally given to all people in our country. From the beginning of our nation access to public education was reserved for whites only and was forbidden for enslaved and free blacks. After Emancipation, when some public and private schooling was made available to African Americans, black children were segregated into under-resourced schools. Due to circumstances that kept most African American families in abject poverty, the masses of black children encountered structural barriers that prevented them from gaining a complete formal education.

Poor African American communities enjoy less public educational support in relation to White Americans. According to “2011-12 school year data from the US Department of Education”, about six percent of white students attend a high-poverty school, but the figure amounts to 40% for blacks (Jordan, "Millions of Black Students”). Reflecting this inequality in resources, “a report called ‘Unequal Education’ by the Center for American Progress” informs that schools wherein minority students comprise 90 percent or more of its student bodies “spend $733 less per student” than schools with “90 percent white students enrolled” (Shaw,"Public Schools Spend Less”). As an effort to address this problem, the Title I Programme grants extra funds for underfinanced

students who demonstrate a capacity for learning. It is assumed that a student who has developed a learning skill will easily acquire different tasks in the vocational field by this the student will have a better remuneration and the chance of being promoted will be better than those who don’t have such learning skills (Sakura et al, 2009, p. 408). This benefit per say is ambiguous and creates doubts and questions. One of the questions would be if the student has the capacity of learning why he/she has to be channeled to the vocational school?