Ever since Brown v. Board of Education, public education has been ruled as
having to be “available to all on equal terms.” However, today, about 40% of all Black and
Hispanic students attend school where 90% of their classmates aren’t white. As
for white students, on average they attend school where 77% of their classmates
are also white. So although some don’t want to believe it, a lot of schools
today are still pretty segregated.
A possible reason for this could be,
as shown in a survey, that high minority schools (those where 90% or more of
the students are nonwhite) spend on average $293 less on their students than
all other schools. Also, schools across the country tend to spend $334 more on
every white student while black students for the most part don’t get noticed.
Therefore, high minority schools are the best place to turn to for them.
However, one reason that minority schools spend less on their students is
because the teachers there don’t get paid as much as those in mostly white
schools. Of the 50 states, 24 of them have a significant decrease for how much
they pay nonwhite schools as opposed to white schools. 13 of them have no
significant spending change and only 12 actually have a significant increase for the nonwhite schools.
The government has tried to find ways
to fix this with some hoping that their acts relating to education would help
sustain a more equal balance. One of
the, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act gives money directly to school
districts includes financial requirements to prevents districts from using
funds improperly. One of these is that
mostly white schools will provide services to students of other races before
their funds are distributed. Presumably, this will help teacher in mostly white
schools pay more attention to students of other resources and perhaps
distribute their money more equally around them. It could also help students of
other races feel more comfortable with these types of schools and create an
environment where races can truly be equal. If that’s the case, then although segregation
seems to be far from showing any signs of dying down, maybe this will help to
at least eliminate some of it gradually.
http://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/UnequalEduation.pdf
First off, I thought it was interesting how you pointed out that schools are experiencing segregation significantly, and then backed it up with nationwide statistics. You then make the claims that predominantly white schools spend more per student, by nearly $300 than predominantly minority schools spend, and its partly due to the amount that teachers are paid. But I would like to know why whiter schools are able to spend so much more money. Is the schooling system providing more resources to whiter schools based on test scores? Or does the money come from local property taxes? Surely there is not more funding based solely on race…or is there? This could be interesting to look further into.
ReplyDeleteI thought found it is really interesting how you wrote about the differences in the schools when it came to, which students were going to school with students of another race while other students were going to schools with people of their own race. I also liked how you included the quote from Brown v. Board of Education to show how public education is not equal on all terms. After reading this however, I wonder if there are any other differences between schools besides the funding of schools and the difference between races in regards to classmates.
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