Education in the United States
Education in the United States is one of the key areas that undergo reforms regularly, to meet the changing learning needs. The education system plays a vital role in the economy by providing the relevant labor resources as well as by producing productive and responsible citizens. However, the U.S. education system still faces critical problems that hinder the achievement of the system’s goals and objectives to a great extent. One of the major problems facing education system in the U.S. today is unequal access to education. Despite efforts to ensure equality in accessing education, such as setting up schools in all regions, disparities in access to education are still evident. The degree to which individuals access education varies according to class, gender, race, and education. However, poverty is among the leading contributing factors to inequality in accessing education since the lack of required resources highly contributes to high dropout rates as well as low enrolment particularly in institutions of higher learning, whose tuition fee is significantly high.
Relationship between Poverty and Unequal Access to Education
According to Leffel and Suskind approximately 22% of children live at or below the poverty line in the U.S., whereby the children comprise of those living in families of four or more members and earning an annual income of $23,050 or below. Also Biddle (80) notes that in approximately 17 states in the U.S., learners from low income backgrounds comprise the larger proportion of students attending public schools unlike in the other states. The high proportion of learners from poor backgrounds in the public schools is associated with the fact that the schools provide free education up to the 12th grade (Biddle 82). Although provision of the free education ensures equality in access to basic education, inequality emanates from the fact that the majority of learners are unable to pursue higher education since it is not provided for free and it is also costly. Hence, inequality in this context is mainly felt after learners have completed the 12th grade, and are required to start paying fee to advance their education, as well as other costs, including room and board expenses, which are often unaffordable for the poor students.
Postulates that learners from families that live below the poverty level demonstrate higher dropout rates compared to other learners. Learners from poor backgrounds lack basic needs, which often prompt them to drop out of school, including food and other crucial necessities. Further, the learners live in environments that are not ideal for learning, whereby they are often exposed to such factors as drug and alcohol abuse as well as domestic violence among others (Cruces, Domenech, and Gasparini 320). In some cases, the learners get influenced into alcohol and drug abuse, and eventually drop out of school and join criminal gangs. The level of parental involvement, particularly in the context of school attendance and learning, is also low. As a result, most learners lack the required guidance and motivation to pursue education and end up dropping out of school at an early age.
Moreover, learners from poor economic backgrounds tend to perform poorly compared to others due to such factors as lack of sufficient food or sleep. Learners from poor economic backgrounds unlike those from economically stable backgrounds lack basic needs, a factor that greatly contributes to their high absenteeism and low concentration in the classroom, eventually leading to low academic performance. Further, individuals from financially stable backgrounds attend private schools, which are better equipped with teachers as well as other learning resources, a factor that makes learners from the schools perform better compared to those from the public schools (Carnevale, and Strohl). The existing earning differences create huge inequalities in accessing education, especially given the fact that most public schools are understaffed and lack the necessary amenities and equipment for learning, a factor that largely contributes to the low academic attainments recorded in public schools.
In addition, unequal access to education emanates from the aspect of funding schools on the basis of geographic location. Pitre (209) argues that this funding model greatly contributes to the inequalities in accessing education that are observed among the different racial groups. Funding is often based on the amount of local taxes, which demonstrates that poor regions collect lesser taxes compared to regions whose larger population is economically stable. Regions where the dominant population is Latin or African Americans are poorer, therefore, the amount of revenue collected from the regions is very low. As a result, the amount of funding allocated to the public schools remains low compared to other regions, a factor that explains the differences in the staffing as well as equipment in different public schools. In this context, inequality in accessing education emanates from the fact that learners living in predominantly poor regions cannot access high-quality education since the level of funding in their schools is low, which leads to understaffing and lack of crucial learning equipment, as well as the fact that private schools are out of reach for most of the learners in the poor regions (Pitre 208).
Implications of Unequal Access to Education and Possible Solutions
Inequality in the education system is detrimental to the American society, especially since it facilitates continued poverty in the poor regions. Pitre (209) notes that education is one of the most vital tools in fighting poverty since it provides individuals with opportunities to pursue highly paying careers. Hence, denying individuals from poor backgrounds an opportunity to effectively pursue education by addressing such problems as low funding in public schools advances the problem of poverty in the poor regions. Moreover, the increased poverty and low academic achievements in these regions deny the economy workforce, as well as talented individuals who could transform the society in the future. In addition, the low rates of completing school among learners from poor backgrounds increase such social problems as drug abuse, which form part of the key problems that the U.S. government is heavily investing to fight.
However, there are several measures that can be implemented to promote equality in accessing education. One of the measures is implementing a system of equal funding in all public schools. Rather than funding schools on the basis of the amount of revenue collected locally, the government should implement a system where all schools are given the same amount of funding to address such problems as understaffing and lack of essential learning equipment. Moreover, the government should focus on granting more support to learners from poor backgrounds, including providing them with crucial basic items, including food to keep them in school and encourage learning as well as higher learning outcomes.
Works Cited
Biddle, Bruce. Social class, poverty and education. Routledge, 2014.
Carnevale, Anthony P., and Jeff Strohl. "Separate " Unequal How Higher Education Reinforces the Intergenerational Reproduction of White Racial Privilege." (2013).
Cruces, Guillermo, C. García Domenech, and Leonardo Gasparini. "Inequality in education: evidence for Latin America." Falling inequality in Latin America. Policy changes and lessons (2014): 318-339.
Leffel, Kristin, and Dana Suskind. "Parent-directed approaches to enrich the early language environments of children living in poverty." Seminars in speech and language. Vol. 34. No. 04. Thieme Medical Publishers, 2013.
Pitre, Charisse Cowan. "Improving African American student outcomes: Understanding educational achievement and strategies to close opportunity gaps." Western Journal of Black Studies 38.4 (2014): 209.
