Running head: CRITICAL ESSAY ONE: THE PLAGUE OF POVERTY Critical Essay One: The Plague of Poverty Tanley Brown Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
CRITICAL ESSAY ONE: THE PLAGUE OF POVERTY 2 Historical Roots of Disadvantages for Minority Students In an idealized world, schools would provide equality of educational opportunity, which is explained by Spring (2014) as an equal chance to receive an education (p. 105). However, across history, minority students have been denied this equality in various ways. Race is a social construct, so throughout the history of the United States, race has been legally defined in a wide array of ways. However, across these definitions, there was consistent mistreatment of minority members of society, particularly immigrants. During the 20 th century, immigration in the United States was severely limited to include only quotas of immigrants from selected countries; this changed with the Immigration Act of 1965. As time passed, the 14 th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, both served to limit the levels of discrimination towards citizens and thus members of minority groups. The 14 th Amendment guarantees that citizens shall have proper and equal protection under the law, including due process. The Civil Rights Act ensures that citizens are not discriminated against by denying federal funds to those discriminating. These changes in law spoke toward the progress that America was making. Treating human beings differently was slowly becoming unacceptable as more and more people began to be defined as citizens. However, this progress has been slow, only including women in 1972 through Title IX and Americans with disabilities in 1997 through the Individuals with Disabilities Act (Spring, 2014). Even with these moves toward ending discrimination, schools are still largely segregated. In fact, 73% of black students, 77% of Latino students, and 52% of Native American students are in schools which are 50-100% minority as late as 2003 (Spring, 2014). As stated in the 1954 Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board, separate is inherently unequal. As such, it s clear to see that while the law has changed toward the treatment of minority students, and the legality of
CRITICAL ESSAY ONE: THE PLAGUE OF POVERTY 3 discrimination is no longer in question, there has been little tangible progress made toward the equality of educational opportunity for minority students. Poverty and Children In today s society, many professional educators and educational activists are calling for all schools to improve, not just those which are impoverished. They maintain that low-achieving schools are low-achieving because they are led by poor educators and administrators (Ravitch p. 91-93). However, Ravitch argues that instead of trying to fix poverty before fixing failing schools, or vice versa, action should be taken to fix both problems simultaneously. Ravitch goes on to explain that poverty cannot be ignored because: Poverty matters. Poverty affects children s health and well-being. It affects their emotional lives and their attention spans, their attendance, and their academic performance. Poverty affects their motivation and their ability to concentrate on anything other than day-to-day survival. In a society of abundance, poverty is degrading and humiliating (p. 93-94). In fact, in the United States, childhood poverty is at higher levels than any other advanced nation at 23% (Ravitch, 2014). Even before their birth, children can be at a disadvantage as they are born into poverty-ridden homes and after a dearth of prenatal care. These disadvantages only compound as children age and their economic standing stays stagnant. Children of poor families are less likely to be exposed to adequate pre-kindergarten education; they are less likely to hear diverse vocabulary at home; they are more likely to be lacking in medical care; they are more likely to develop asthma; and they are more likely to miss large amounts of school (Ravitch p. 96-97). Each of these things would cause a student to be at a disadvantage, so it is clear that a combination of them could prove catastrophic for students.
CRITICAL ESSAY ONE: THE PLAGUE OF POVERTY 4 Plight of the Impoverished Many consider the sign of success a plentiful income level, as indicated by Horace Mann s goals for a successful education system. Mann specified that schools should provide, graduates with equality of opportunity to pursue wealth (Spring, 2014). By equality of opportunity it is meant that, all members of a society are given equal chances to pursue wealth and enter any occupation or social class (Spring p. 57). While this does allow for individuals to select a career path which most excites them, it certainly indicates that the preference is to be in a profession which will provide ample wealth. There is a direct correlation between income level and education level. For instance, Americans with a Master s degree make an average of $74,000 a year, whereas Americans without a high-school diploma make an average of $20,000 (Spring, 2014). Within each level of education, there are also disadvantages based on gender and race. For instance, men make an average of $1 for every $0.68 a woman earns (Spring, 2014). Thus, it is extremely disappointing that our education system is so negligent of education of its impoverished members. At-risk students are those who may be more inclined to suffer academic setbacks. For instance, a student with non-graduating parents would be considered at risk. It is important to note that, being at risk is only an indicator of potential academic problems (Spring, 2014). Poverty is one of the highest risk factors associated with being at risk. As can be seen by the above statistics, it is extremely difficult to be financially secure without a degree. Because of this, it can be observed that students entering the education system from a place of poverty are less likely to actually experience Mann s idealized system of education. Furthermore, students of low income families are more likely to be attending school in a poor school district, where less money is spent on each individual student. It should be observed that in efforts to counteract this,
CRITICAL ESSAY ONE: THE PLAGUE OF POVERTY 5 funds are being given to schools with the highest percentage of students from impoverished families. However, students that fall outside of the richest and the poorest are getting almost $2,000 les spent on them; this further prevents the desired equality (Spring, 2014). Connection/Conclusion As we can see, minority groups continue to be impacted by historical and economic factors in the world of education. Minority groups have been discriminated against across time, which has ultimately led to the impoverishment of many within each group. Because of historical wrongdoings, minority groups are more likely to be impoverished and thus are at risk for the aforementioned disadvantages of poverty. If we truly hope to end discrimination in the United States we must work to equalize our education system for all of its students. We can t allow students to be tracked at lower levels because of their skin color. We can t allow students to skate by because of their skin color. And ultimately, we can t ignore the disadvantages of either being a minority student, being an impoverished student, or being an impoverished, minority student. Furthermore, race and educational achievement are linked, as would be suggested by secondgeneration segregation. Spring (2014) defines second-generation segregation as, forms of racial segregation that are a result of school practices such as tracking, ability grouping, and the misplacement of students in special education classrooms (p. 115). For instance, white students are 4% more likely to graduate high school than are black students, and this increases to 10% when considering college graduation (Spring, 2014). Even more discouraging are the statistics for Hispanic students who are 25% less likely to graduate high school than white students and 16% less likely to graduate college. Asian students are approximately equally likely to graduate high school and are actually 23% more likely to graduate college than are white students. This
CRITICAL ESSAY ONE: THE PLAGUE OF POVERTY 6 being said, Asians are considered by some to be the model minority despite their extensive maltreatment in United States history (Spring, 2014). All of the above should be impossible due to tangible and malleable definitions of race, so it is clear that there is some sort of inherent discrimination still present in schools. These disadvantages aren t going to end anytime soon. Phenomenon such as secondgeneration segregation leave minority groups at a different level academically. These include tracking and increased placement of minority students in special education courses (Spring p. 115). Furthermore, teachers have been found to treat students of minority groups differently with regard to expected level of achievement and punitive action within the classroom and the school house. It is clear that education is not acting as an equalizer for all. Efforts can be made to upend this and prevent second-generation segregation, but as this problem remains in the larger society, these changes will not happen quickly, and are necessary both in and out of the educational system. However, minority groups do not make up all of impoverished America. Therefore, the plight of the impoverished is not merely that of minority groups, and is instead one for all races and ethnicities. Poverty is distinctly disadvantageous for students, and as such, it should be addressed to help America s students, both of minority groups and not. It is inherently unfair to count of almost a fourth of our children merely because of the income level of their parents. The education system needs to evolve to accommodate these situations and help the fourth of its students currently being negatively impacted.
CRITICAL ESSAY ONE: THE PLAGUE OF POVERTY 7 References Ravitch D. (2014). Reign of Error. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Spring, J. (2014). American Education (16 th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.