The concept of public K-12 education aims at giving every child an equal opportunity to receive an education that will better their lives. Following this ideal, it would therefore be expected that every school would be created equal, and every child would receive the same quality of education, not matter their location, SES, gender, race, etc. Unfortunately, this is far from the reality. Public schools in affluent neighborhoods have more funding, more resources, better teachers, and therefore better standardized test scores. This is not the reality for many schools in impoverished areas. These schools face increasingly higher obstacles to educating their students, which in turn produces lower test scores, which leads to decreased funding, and thus the dangerous cycle of inequality continues.
This inequality is not only present in the “big picture” parts of the schools but also the details of how the school is run. I have had the opportunity of witnessing first hand the drastic differences of public schools based on the area they are located in. In high school, I volunteered at an elementary school in an affluent neighborhood. The school was brand new, very clean, and beautifully furnished. There were posters and flyers posted all over the walls saying things like “follow your dreams”, “you can achieve anything”, etc. Now in college, I volunteer at a local elementary school that serves a very low income neighborhood. The school is bleak looking and the only decorations are signs stating rules such as “no running, no food past cafeteria, etc.” I’ve also noticed a difference in how the kids are disciplined. At school in the affluent area, a child disobeying the teacher is pulled aside and asked what is wrong and how they can be helped. At the low income school, children who misbehave are sent straight to the office where they usually get lunch detention or a “pink slip”, which takes them away from the classroom and slowly breaks their spirit. This isn’t necessarily the fault of the faculty, but of the funding. Schools in impoverished areas have larger class sizes, less resources for teachers and more pressure to have students improve their scores. In the article “Road to Rome”, the author points out how low income schools have to push test prep curriculum as their top priority in an attempt to increase their scores and increase funding. This in turn cuts out any material that wont be covered on the test, leaving students without little to no knowledge of history, geography, and science, among other things. By basing curriculum majorly on standardized test preparation, students are taught to memorize facts, rather then to learn the sake of loving learning. Additionally, students begin to feel their worth is based solely on their scores.
Although there is no simple solution to the deeply rooted problem of the inequality of education, giving funding to schools with the lower scores, in order to help them attain the resources needed to raise their scores is a good starting place. Additionally, placing more importance on learning for the sake of knowledge and discovery of passions over standardized testing would improve the overall moral of both students and teachers. I hope you consider these ideas, for the sake of students, teachers, and society as a whole.
Sincerely,
Maddie McGregor