The Importance Of Education In Detroit Public Schools

Pedro Noguera, a phenomenal urban sociologist and a professor at New York University confronts the problems which exist in our nation’s education system in his book, City Schools and the American Dream: Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education. Noguera describes what he views to be the main problems facing urban education and suggests strategies for improvement. From years of experience as a teacher and school board member, he reflects on what he believes to be the real problems. Noguera blames the school’s failures on students, parents, and teachers which leads to blame local government officials or policymakers. Noguera states in City Schools and the American Dream, “The central argument of this book is that until there is a genuine commitment to address the social context of schooling — to confront the urban condition — it will be impossible to bring about significant and sustainable improvements in urban public schools” (pg.6). Noguera believes that we must address the central problem to make any type of solutions for improvement.

There was a time when America’s education system was top-notch according to the culture and society. With time, a myriad of things has changed, but unfortunately what has not evolved is the American education system. The country is still following a system which was not designed for the current global economic climate. Equality, as positive as it sounds is not as sufficient when it comes to education. The system treats students equally yet expect a similar culmination and outcome. Every child has his individuality and distinct abilities; one cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Conversely, a few of the prominent reasons why the education system is failing are overcrowded schools, the rise of technology, and following the same old school hours.

It has become common today to dismiss the lack of education coming from our impoverished public schools. Jonathan Kozol an award winning social injustice writer, trying to bring to light how our school system talks to their students. In his essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal," Kozol visits many public high schools as well as public elementary schools across the country, realizing the outrageous truth about segregating in our public education system. Kozol, cross-examining children describing their feelings as being put away where no one desires your presence. Children feeling diminished for being a minority; attending a school that does not take into consideration at the least the child’s well being. Showing clear signs of segregation in the education system.

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

Education and economic justice were two forms of systemic inequalities that make inequality difficult to talk about. Education is a requirement if someone wishes to have a better life, but not everyone has access to quality education. In the U.S there has always been a battle, people of color have fought to be able to access quality education, (Philips, 2016: 130) they are constantly attending inferior and ineffective school where there are many distractions for students to be fully successful in the classrooms. Often these schools where children of color attend lack quality facilities, educational resources, and qualified teachers. Someone can’t help to notice that in general such unqualified schools are mostly in color people’s neighborhoods.

There has been many attempts to solving this problem, on all different types of levels. Local levels with committees and coalitions such as The Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren have been striving towards a solution. For a strong coalition, there needs to be adequate human resources. This means the number of people involved and the power of the people involved (Graham, 181). The Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren has regular citizens such as concerned parents, people on the school board, and also people with connections to higher powers. On the state level, there is Governor Rick Snyder putting more emphasis and promoting more blue collared jobs that only require skills training. Since this problem exists throughout the nation and crosses state

The situation with Detroit Public Schools has been taking turns for the worse. Every day it seems like something is adding up to the pile of Detroit Public School District issues. DPS has been considered as “The Worst School District” in the country. DPS have been struggling to improve the school district, The district has been trying for decades as nothing has been working. Detroit Public Schools main issues that need to be tackled down includes: unhealthy environments, oversized classrooms, and the district’s unbalance of power.

America’s education system is one of the most respectable, reputable and sought after commodities in our society, but it is also the most overcrowded, discriminatory, and controversial system ever established. Most people yearn for a higher education because it 's what 's expected in this society in order to get ahead. It means a better job, more money, power, prestige and a sense of entitlement. But this system has let down the children that are supposed to benefit from it. Education discriminates against minorities, and poorer class students are not expected nor encouraged to attain a higher education. The education system is set up to ensure that every child get a basic

     Will Durant, a businessman and the founder of General Motors, once said, “Education is the transmission of civilization.” Unfortunately, education is still one of the most deliberated 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 funding while rich districts obtain more, creating an immense gap between the quality of schools in poor and rich areas.

The greatest country in the world still has problems evenly distributing education to its youth. The articles I have read for this unit have a common theme regarding our education system. The authors illustrate to the reader about the struggles in America concerning how we obtain and education. Oppression, politics, racism, and socioeconomic status are a few examples of what is wrong with our country and its means of delivering a fair education to all Americans.

Jonathan Kozol’s book, Savage Inequalities, is a passionate testament to the shortcomings of the public education system in the United states. Kozol visits some of the most impoverished school districts in East St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Camden, and San Antonio. He identifies characteristic among all of these schools to include a high percentage of dropouts, a population of almost entirely non-white students, an infrastructure in disrepair, a startling lack of basic supplies, a shortage of teachers, and an excess of students. Kozol also visits schools in the vicinity that are in stark contrast to the poorest schools. They have an abundance of supplies, space, funds, AP curriculum, extra-curricular activities, and teachers. These schools were also predominantly white. Kozol explores reasons for these differences between neighboring schools and finds that those who are in a position to initiate change are largely apathetic to the inequalities.

After several years of success, the required cuts along with economic woes rendered Proposal A largely ineffective and unable to properly fund Michigan’s schools, creating a massive problem in the way Michigan school districts are to be funded, as well as developing a need for new educational policy to supplement or overhaul Proposal A and the Michigan educational system.

When school budgets are limited, and can no longer support all the employee positions, they are eliminated. In the Union Journal, it speaks of cuts to the Royal College School of Nursing, and how in the year 2011 there were just over 2,500 school staff, which was down from 3,000 in 2010 (“Union condemns cuts to school nurses”, 2017). At other institutions, budget cuts have impacted particular sections of employees. According to Ginsberg (2009), budget cuts eliminated many human services programs in schools, which is not in the best interest of the children (Ginsberg, 2009). With eliminating these services, students will no longer have the support system within their school environment to go to in their time of need. Position cuts not only risked the health of the children, but also the health of the future of the

As a recent high school graduate student, I have never been given the opportunity to do a research assignment. Although I look forward to this assignment, the Detroit scenario activity gave me a glimpse of what to expect. The activity itself was quite basic. But it allowed me to understand how much thought truly goes into something as basic as a school.

In today’s economic environment even the wealthiest states and districts are having to cut funding for education, while districts which were already teetering on the edge are now in an even worse position. In some schools children have to face not having enough books, paper for copies, severe overcrowding,