Poverty And Education In Boston

Public education has had a negative effect on students; it’s often because of the bigger class sizes, poor test scores, and high crime in the surrounding areas. Public schools need to revise their system to determine what’s the best fit for their student’s educational needs. All children who live in a school district have a right to attend a district school. Many parents would like more options and opportunities for their child, and would like to be involved in their child’s education. Charter schools are part of the answer for a better educational choice for children’s academic achievement. Charter schools have many successful methods and continue to pave the way for children’s education needs .

At the foundation of the American public school system is the belief that every child deserves a quality education. To this end, the public school system in America has undergone many reforms. One of which has been charter schools. Charter schools are independent public schools of choice working under the auspices of a charter and not governed by the board of education. The charter can be written by parents, teachers, school administrators, community leaders, educational businesses, etc. It determines the school’s guiding principles, management and accountability systems. The state approves the charter and provides funding for the school. Families choose these schools for their children. (“Resistance Hinders Success,” 2004)

I was surprised to believe that as a whole, a significant portion of students came from low-income families, experienced homelessness at some point, were hungry, or suffered from trauma. For one student to experience any of these problems requires a number of resources for a school, but when the majority of students are facing these issues, schools need to be particularly well equipped. Adding to this the fact that Chicago public schools are seriously underfunded, this is a tragedy. Schools are forced to cut social workers, psychologists, and clinicians from their services and ultimately, students are left without help. In my Introduction to Poverty Studies class, we learned that in order to alleviate systemic poverty, part of the solution lies in focusing on children and providing them all the resources so that can be as well equipped for life as possible. Much of this responsibility falls on public schools, but without funds, this task is

With poverty comes a certain attitude, in higher up communities the children and parents are more respectful towards their teacher, education itself is respected; however, in poverty stricken areas the children are at home alone, or running the streets, the parents are usually too busy working to worry about how their child is doing in school. Districts also have the same attitude, schools in upper class neighborhoods have the essentials; such as, running hot water in the gymnasium, and showers that actually work, new books and just the overall approach to the education, of its students is superior. Compared to that of lower class, neighborhoods the essentials are overlooked for instance, classrooms are in need of repair, as well as the bathrooms and gymnasiums. Their books are torn, and outdated, and their approach to education has been to just make it through the

Public education has struggled with securing funding for years and the opening of charter schools has impacted the budgets of school systems across the country. As more charter schools are created and parents

Hunger and poverty are global issues that American is not an exception to. As of 2012, statistical data provided by the government reported that "46.5 million people were in poverty, including 16.1 million children under the age of 18" and households with children are hit disproportionately with hunger (Feeding America, Hunger). This disproportion results in an equally startling deficit in the quality of education for our children. These alarming statistics attest to the fact that poverty has become an epidemic. Educating all students to ensure they become productive and successful citizens cannot just be a desire, but a need. The required reformation to fix this epidemic requires government and community assistance with teacher involvement.

To quote Jonathan Stith, “Where you see the charters providing an avenue of escape for some, it hasn’t been for the majority,” (Zernike 4). In some cities charter schools are educating more that half the students in some American cities (Zernike 1). These charter schools make promises to parents and students that are hard to pass up in many cities, where public education is lacking and private education is out of reach for many. Charter schools exist all across America, in forty-two states and Washington D.C.(Oliver). These charter schools promise choice, opportunities for better and safer education, as well as strive to to close the achievement gap occurring in schools across America. (Oliver). The question is: are charter schools living up to this promise? I believe that many charter schools are failing to follow through on these promises and, that changes should be made in order to provide a more genuine source of educational opportunity to students across America.

No one will argue the benefits of education, and it is a shared belief that education can improve our society. The success of every community depends on education to improve health and happiness, improve job employment, and to broaden the horizons of everyone. However in many cities across America, the benefits of charter schools are not always equally shared within the community. In an article written by Ash (2014) the Akron, Ohio school buses drove an extra 15,600 miles a day in 2012 to accommodate students of charter schools. This extra driving added up to about an additional $85,000 every day. On average the cost was 44 percent higher to transport charter school students, than that of students attending public schools, with all of the costs being covered by the district. The state of our economy is under constant scrutiny, sadly the education system has been greatly affected by this, with politicians constantly seeking to cut school funding to save money. Charter schools do not equally share in the responsibility of a community’s student population, and as a byproduct affect everyone within that community. With its current operating procedures in place, charters may be detrimental to a community. Matozzo (2015) shares the potential future of Philadelphia, the unfair comparison between charter and public schools has created an underfunded school district within the city. Pushing parents to

The child achievement gap has been an important issue for the United States school system. According to the NEA, child achievement gaps are, “differences in academic performance between students of groups with different backgrounds”. Now with the topic of charter schools and the belief that charter schools are more likely to accept students who are easier to teach and suspend students who are a nuisance to teach, the reason why achievement gaps exists has just gotten broader. Many critics, such as Marcus A. Winters, claims that charter schools are proving that, “education reform can work with even the hardest-to educate students: students with disabilities and students learning English are more likely to remain in charters than in traditional

Originally, charter schools were designed as an alternative to Public Schools. Parents desired a place they could send their kids to learn that wasn’t failing academically. For instance, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District has been failing for many years. The “CMSD has a graduation rate of just 54 percent, and last year, two-thirds of its schools received a D or F on the state report card” (Chilcote,

Charter schools are a relatively new concept for education in the United States. Originally, states created charter schools through legislation in Minnesota in 1991 (Raymond). The schools gained in popularity as more states began passing laws to allow their creation. By 2012, 41 states have charter schools, and they educated over two million students (Sanchez). Regardless of a person’s opinion about these institutions, they undoubtedly have a large impact on education in the United States. In recent years, the number of charter schools has risen astronomically. Between 2003 and 2013, these schools increased from 3000 to 6500 (“Fast

It is just as important for students who are ready to take on additional academic challenges should have the opportunity to excel, while those who are historically underserved to deserve the extra time and attention that they needed for untroubled problems. “No teacher should have to worry about not being able to provide the most basic resources for their students”(NY Times). This shows that teacher who are having less resources will not be given the proper education to their students like other children who are capable of having enough resources. “However, I do believe that increased funding for high-quality resources, mental health services for at-risk students, and continued teacher development would absolutely improve urban education”(NY Times). Having to work together as a school, community to get better resources will better the students and be able to have a metabolism to love learning and to keep doing on what they do. Being able to have funding for schools are giving the chance for students to have more resources and for not having the risk of them dropping out of school. “A classroom of 35-plus students without books is hardly a learning environment, especially when compared to suburban and private schools where the average class size is 20 students and resources are plentiful”(NY Times). Seeing how many school environments do not have the resources they need they are mostly compared with those who have enough money to pay for supplies such as books, notebooks, technology, etc. students should have the ability to be provided with the same level of education and supplies to get a understanding of the

In California there is frequent debate over the performance of public schools throughout the state. It is known that many of the state’s public schools are poorly funded and lay in disrepair. It is also accompanied by bad test scores and underperforming students which is not necessarily the schools fault. Article one discusses a possible solution with an ambitious $490-million plan to place half of Los Angeles students into charter schools within the next eight years. Charter schools are publicly financed, independently run and are exempt from some of the rules that govern other traditional campuses. Details of the plan have yet to be released but the major contributors include the locally based Eli and Edyth Broad Foundation along with the Keck and Walton Family Foundations and other charter advocates. The proposed plan would create 260 new charter schools and enroll at least 130,000 students (Blume 2015). The foundations have publicly declined to release important information on the policy but apparently have a strategy in place for moving forward, including the recruitment and training of teachers and how to raise money. The plan has already encountered a lot of resistance from the powerful L.A. Unified unions. Critics of the plan claim

Furthermore, there are other issues concerning charter schools worth discussing. They have the ability of charter schools to weed out teachers who are not performing adequately. Teachers must be able to teach in a way (not necessarily mainstream) that instructs, inspires, and motivates his or her students to excel. Students may not have the same abilities or interests, but the teacher must allow the student’s vision and scientific curiosity motivates and inspire. These inspirations will exceptionally well connect over into college and

Schools and education can be the person’s ticket way out of poverty. Schools provide students with resources and educators that can help the students mature and be able to stand on their own two feet.