Summary Of Our Failing Schools: Enough Is Enough ! By Dr. Geoffrey Canada

Unfortunately, these children cannot complete their education because they have to travel with their family and learn to manage at a young age a life of hard labor. This however does not diminish their dreams of completing high school and some day attending a university so that they will not have to live the life of struggle their parents did to sustain the household. In cities like Detroit, MI there is a large population of low income Hispanic and African American families. The public school system unfortunately cannot potentially promote a high-quality education. The majority of these students do not receive an entrance level education simply because of living standards. Income plays an important role in education opportunities regarding the quality education each student can pertain. Since the minorities in that area are low-income they cannot afford to attend a private high school that can better prepare them for college. According to a research done at the University of Texas-Pan American, “certain racial or ethnicity factors should play a role in the admissions decision.” (Marklein)

This demonstrates that if Sam’s school had got more funding then Sam may have received a proper education, and would have learned the intellectual skills that could help him to obtain a high paying job. Unlike many other people in richer parts of America who are able to achieve a lot in life due to their education, Sam’s lack of wealth ruins his future. Another example is one that hits closer to home- in terms of educational funding, the Illinois system is corrupt, and one of the districts that suffers most is that of Chicago Public Schools. In an interview with Ryan Young from CNN and an anonymous Chicago Public School teacher over the recent strike over budget cuts and the overall lack in school funding, the teacher states, “We care about the students. We want funding for our schools so our children can have supplies… gym, art, and PE., just like the kids in the suburbs do.” This is a direct representation of what is occurring in the Chicago Public School system today as a consequence of budget cuts and unequal funding. In general, the lack of school funding gives poorer children disadvantages when it comes to supplies that can help them to thrive. Also, budget cuts weaken the capacity of schools’ to develop the intelligence and creativity of the next generation of workers. In fact,, funding cuts lessen the ability of the schools to help prepare children better for their future, such as improving teacher

This is why parental involvement is important. Teens need someone to show them the societal benefits of education rather than the pointless math equations that teens typically associate with education. Teenagers in low socioeconomic areas are more subjective to academic failure. In some situations, parents cannot help the fact that they are undersupplying their children with the necessary tools to be successful students. In many instances, parents from low socioeconomic areas are less likely to purchase reading and learning materials for their children

“One of the greatest obstacles to escaping poverty is the staggering cost of higher education” said United States Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen. Hollen is one of the members on the committee for education funding where he proposed the bill “Keep Our Promise to America's Children and Teachers”. Hollens idea of education is to leave no child behind no matter if the child has disabilities, less money , or more money; every child will get an reasonable education that will someday help America. Hollens objective is utilized in Malcolm Gladwell's non-fiction book Outliers where he highlights the success of young children who are classified as wealthy and poor. In chapter nine “Marita's Bargains” Gladwell appeals to the audience through reliable

Unfortunately, the school's lack of appropriate education results directly from poor government funding. So even with hard work, the lower-class student is still held down by his socio-economic status. Poverty-stricken parents are unable to offer their children the same attention and motivation as parents of a higher-class can, therefore never providing these children with the mindset that they are able to accomplish the American dream. According to Mantsios, 40 million Americans live in poverty, and the mental and physical affects the low standard of living has on them is undeniable (Mantsios 328). Citizens who live in poverty work long hours for little pay, yet return to a household that in no way symbolizes the hard work put forth. Within this environment, very few people have the positive outlook to mentor children successfully.

They tend to learn about their ‘rules’ from their community. They absorb the behaviors around them first hand, that hard work, might not pay off. They learn that if they don’t want to go to school, they don’t have to. If they don’t want to do their homework, that’s okay too. They learn that no matter how hard they work, it may get them nowhere, so you may as well have fun doing what you want, and not what teachers or authority wants. I feel that our school does a fairly good job at teaching our students that no matter where their lives are in this period of their life, it can change for the better in the blink of an eye. We have the same high expectations for students living in poverty or ELL, than we do with our middle class students. The biggest difference is that the teachers are working hard every day to level that playing field for them. We remind them that working hard, will take some effort, but you will be recognized and we will help them to be successful! Academic achievement is encouraged for all of our students.

Not only are impoverished children suffering from a late start in education, it is known that the neediest schools are the schools who's students are below the poverty line. The students with the greatest needs receive the least funding and resources. In New York the average poor student will receive about $1,000 year in resources at public school; whereas the school's with the least amount of poor children receive around $3,000 per student in public schools. Not necessarily the same number wise but this is the case in at least 37 of our 50 states (Schemo). Inadequate education for impoverished children only worsens their chances of making it out of poverty.

Yet, this option is not the case for everybody. In his book, “Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back To Reality,”

Education does not just take place in schools. Classrooms are places where many forms of discourses come together. Students and teachers with various forms of knowledge and ways of communicating interact together and unfortunately some ways of knowing and communicating hold more value than others. Sometimes researcher should stop looking at the bigger picture; capitalist economies and the true nature of society should become more of a focus in education research. You cannot hope to understand why students from lower socio economic areas do poorly compared to students whose parents are more affluent unless more is done to understand the prior.

Most of the students come from low income families, which may play a factor as to why these students are not performing well academically. According to Carol Carter, a student success expert reason for the lack of success for low income students are lack of exposure, language barriers, lack of stability, and lack of role models (2013).

The film Waiting for Superman asks an important question as it examines the failing educational system of the United States. Should we focus on saving our schools or the children who attend them. I say we can only save our society by designing schools whose prime objective is to benefit children despite the many agendas that are counterproductive to that end.

“ Historically, low-income students as a group have performed less well than high-income students on most measures of academic success” (Reardon, 2013). Typically low-income families come from low-income parts of the state making a school that does not have as much funding as a higher economic schools does lack in resources for their students. The school then has lower paid teachers and administrators, with lower quality supplies. This results in a school which typically has faculty who do not perform as well as the well-funded schools. “The law fails to address the pressing problems of unequal educational resources across schools serving wealthy and poor children” (Hammond, 2007). Students from low and high income families will not be able to achieve the same education because their education simply is not the same.

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.

In the U.S., low income students who live in high poverty neighborhoods do not receive the proper funds for school. The schools that they attend do not get enough of the state’s money in order to get the education they need. Students that come from wealthier families can get the help they need outside of school, if they cannot get it in school. Low income students have to take what they are given and that is not always a lot. Every student might not get a textbook that they can take home and that leaves them with no help to do their homework. This can push the student behind the rest of the class and may take them longer to catch up because

The Department of Education and Training and TISC have produced research that has indicated that children from low socio economic areas on average have far fewer students that enter university. The reason for this is that these parents have no previous experience with higher education and often don’t value this education in the same way parents from affluent areas do, hence the children do not have the role models to follow. Many of these families also do not have the finances to access school of choice and provide resources within the home that may enhance their development. Many of these parents also lack their own educational knowledge that allows them an understanding of how a child’s development processes. A simple example of this may be the fact that these parents may not understand the value of early intervention with developmental processes such as reading (How Kids Develop, 2008) i.e. simply reading to them each night.