Essay on The Segregation of America's School System

Education is an integral part of society, School helps children learn social norms as well as teach them to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. In West Trenton Central High School was only 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. These school have lower test scores and high dropout rates. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often form low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial factors to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and

The book, Inequality in the Promised Land: Race, Resources, and Suburban Schooling, tells us about the problems that inner-city students face in schools across America. There is an apparent problem with discrimination towards black and poorer families within some suburban districts. The effect of this is a vicious cycle of limited/ scare resources of educational opportunities for students. Author, Lewis-McCoy examines a suburban area in which a “promised land” of educational opportunities and beneficial resources has failed to live up to it’s name. America’s suburbs are seeing an increase in diverse families, yet there is still a challenge of giving equal and high quality educational opportunities to them.

Systematic racism within education Institutions, such as the lack of adequate funding as well as subtle discrimination, continues to be the root of the problem that plagues this nation. Even though segregation was abolished in 1964, the lingering effects that remain are significant and cannot be passively mended. Although it is tempting to think that this prejudice is caused by a select few and not the many, it is clear that this problem holds more depth. Recent studies conducted by the National Education Studies (NEA) have proven that even in school’s African American students are often times targeted and punished at a significantly higher rate when compared to their white peers. The study states “Black students make up almost 40 percent of all school expulsions [in the] nation, and more than two thirds of students referred to police from schools are either black or Hispanic” (Blacks: Education Issues). This study conducted by the Department of Education, cabinet-level department of the United States

“When we can predict how well students will do in school by looking at their zip code, we know we have a serious systemic problem” (Gloria Ladson-Billings 20). When we are able to forecast how a child will perform by where the child resides, then how can we say that every child is receiving quality education. The unsuccessful educational system infused into the United States is affecting the majority of minorities. In the United States students due to their race and social class, suffer from underfunded public schools, inexperienced teachers, and housing segregation, which in turn inhibit their opportunity to succeed through education. These difficulties plaque students from the very beginning of their public school experience and follow them throughout their academic life. There are a few solutions to these issues but they have to be implemented and enforced with a slow integration.

In fear of the deteriorating value of education materials to support the appropriate grade levels, white families flee the public school system to magnet or private school for higher enrichment. Meanwhile, suburban legislators and Governor Thompson agree that “we can’t keep throwing money into a black hole” (Kozol, 1988, p. 53). Ultimately, the education at public schools were thrown aside at the cost of enriching the lives of students in affluent schools. Within the two districts I researched, Dallas ISD and Highland Park ISD, I found that the gathered median income from Highland Park is four times that of Dallas ISD. Because of this, Dallas ISD students are forced to rely on the limited sources of educational materials which are reflected by the substantially different median income compared to Highland ISD. Additionally, racial divide amongst the two ISD’s is astonishing. In Dallas ISD’s only 5.1% of the student body is identified as white but Highland Park is 85.8%. Meanwhile, the other ethnicities for the two school districts have the percentages swapped. Having Highland ISD’s black, Latino/Hispanic, Asian, or Pacific ethnicities just below the 15% margin and Dallas ISD’s non-white ethnicities soaring above 94%, the clear distinction of racial inequality among these two districts are evident. Comparing these percentages aligns to Kozol’s evaluation of white overpopulation in affluent schools within different districts such as Highland ISD.

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.

already in the form of “The Jim Crow Laws” but now that it had been

Most people believe that students do better in well-funded schools and that public education should provide a level playing field for children. Nearly half of the funding for public schools in the United States, however, is provided through local taxes, generating large differences in funding between wealthy and impoverished communities (National Center for Education Statistics, 2000a). Efforts to reduce these disparities have provoked controversy and resistance. Public school funding the United States comes from federal, state, and local sources, but because nearly half of those funds come from local property taxes, the system generates large funding differences between wealthy and impoverished communities. Such differences exist among states, among school districts within each state, and even among schools within specific districts.

According to Massey and Denton (1988), residential segregation “is the degree to which two or more groups live separately from one another, in different parts of the urban environment”(282). Now this is a pretty general definition, but it gives basic but good insight as to what residential desegregation is talking about. In this paper, I will mostly be focusing on residential segregation as it relates to the black and white populations in relation to one another, although I will be referencing some other races briefly to create a better understanding of concepts or ideas.

With rising levels of public vigilance against racial discrimination, overt forms of racial discrimination is on the decline. Jim Crow laws and the “Separate but equal”slogans have been swept into the dustbin of history. But more covert and insidious forms of racial discrimination have taken root, such as police indiscretion and brutality, selective law enforcement, educational inequality. Arguably, the current problems afflicting black people can all be attributed to residential segregation, brought about by widespread white flight to suburban areas and the abnormally high concentration of blacks in downtown urban areas. Race-based residential segregation causes a whole host of endemic social scourges

To understand the issue of racial segregation in the United States, we need to remember about the process of country formation. We know that the United States was formed, initially, by British settlers, who gave rise to the Thirteen Colonies in the east coast of the country. However, the colonies of the South had a development different from those of the North. While in the North there was a model of small private ownership, with free work and wage labor, and the development of industry. On the other hand, in the South, the most common model was the large land ownership and monoculture, which characterizes the so-called plantation. In this model, contrary to what was practiced in the North, the use of slave labor was set, more precisely of

The legal battle against segregation began in the 1930s, but the journey to battle segregation in court was to not desegregate schools. Rather, Thurgood Marshall and other NAACP Legal Fund members fought the legal battle as a way for the white man to uphold the Plessy v. Ferguson verdict, not to overturn it. When the Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson with Brown v. Board of Education in 1955, they requested the schools to desegregate schools with all deliberate speed. What this means is that schools should desegregate as quickly as possible so as to not have to deal with fights against white supremacists. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, as while President Eisenhower feels that the federal government is going a little too fast with

¨We were all humans until race disconnected us, religion seperated us, politics divided us, and wealth classified us.¨. Pravinee Hurbungs opened our eyes to the nasty truth of segregation in our lives today. We do not live in the perfect world Martin Luther King convinced us of 50 years ago. America’s largest city is the most diverse. When inner cities were created the wealthy built houses that they, after growing tired of the house, then discarded to the poor. As the gap widens, the less the chance we have of winning. The wealthy are the ones who are paying for the poor. The things we don’t elevate are the things that are making us suffer. We are a divided country in more ways than just race. “Dr. King’s goal was simple: absolute equality.

The influence of race, ethnicity and immigration are hot topics in the United States of America because they have been misused by citizens to disenfranchise others from different racial inclinations. The historical injustices that have been committed against the Anglo-Saxons, the Mexican and the African Americans have been the major causes of disunity among the Americans. Slavery can be directly associated with the racial segregation where the white Americans have dominated other racial groups like the Blacks and the Latinos. The major jobs were allocated to whites while the immigrants, the Mexicans and other communities in the US suffered from squalor. This research work is aimed at dissecting the impact of racial segregation in the United States of America and the need for a more cohesive society where there is appreciation for the cultural diversity of the people. Race in the United States of America promoted seclusion, exclusion and segregation in many ways. The existence of racial discrimination has been evident in future generations and more work must be done to improve the American society.

There is great proof that African Americans citizens now have equal rights as white citizens, but there is also solid evidence proving that African Americans were held back from having the same rights as white men and women. There was a set of laws passed called the Jim Crow laws, which led to the enforcement of segregation between blacks and whites. Racial segregation was enforced until it was fully ended in every state in 1964, due to the Civil Rights Act, declaring segregation wrong. The retracement of segregation led to integration of schools. Although it was deemed socially unacceptable to associate with African Americans before, the Civil Rights Act that made segregation illegal, which led to the need to integrate schools, such as Central High School, otherwise known as the school of the Little Rock School Crisis.