The Meal Ticket
“Inequality: noun, an unfair situation in which some people have more rights or better opportunities than other people” (“Inequality. def. 1).
Inequality is found virtually everywhere in American society, from jobs, to healthcare, to politics, the list goes on. American citizens commonly think of inequality being present in the justice system or unfair pay between genders holding the same jobs. But, one of the most profound areas of inequality that slips the average mind is education. Education has been known to be the breeding ground of inequality. One student will always be better off than the next, it’s an almost accepted fact. Educational systems have limited the opportunity of their students since early settlers broke Native American soil in the seventeenth century. Education has been delegated according to race, religion, gender, and economic status, restricting American youth from achieving academic greatness. One might think well that was a long time ago; there are laws today that prevent education systems from telling a child they can not go to school. Laws such as Brown v. Board of Education and Title XI do mandate that every child should have the ability to obtain an education regardless of the color of their skin or their gender. It is even illegal for parents to keep children home from school. But, just like any important or minuscule law, just because it is in place does not mean that everyone will follow it. Just because the educational system has laws stating that every child should be able to obtain an education does not mean that every child is given that opportunity.
The cold hard truth of it all is, education is just as unequal as the justice system and the work environment. In 2015, today’s children are still separated from each other on some basis, whether it be by address, age, income, and learning abilities. For instance, college students of a high income with below average test scores have a 30% rate of college graduation, whereas college students of a low income with above average test scores have a 26% rate of college graduation (DeParle). America is not the home of equality that it’s citizens like to claim it is. America is where even the most basic of rights is being denied from it’s people all too frequently. Educational systems should be reformed because they do not currently promote educational equality by offering a sound education to all races, classes, and genders.
On May 17th, 1954 the Supreme Court made a decision that would forever change the dynamics of the United States (The Leadership Conference). The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the practice of ‘separate but equal’ was unconstitutional and schools’ nation wide would have to begin integration in the case Brown. v Board of Education (The Leadership Conference). Integration started immediately and was heavily mandated and aggressively enforced by the U.S government for the next 20 years. But, in the 1980’s, the same court that ruled the Brown. v. Board of Education decision began to dismantle it (The Leadership Conference). Without the harsh enforcement of integration as before, school districts began to pay less attention to the demographics of their schools, and without much notice, schools slowly began to become segregated once again (The Leadership Conference). Segregation does not have to mean the physical separation of races (or other objects), as it had been known as in the 1950’s and 60’s. Segregation can be the unintentional separation of races or other objects. Our nation’s children today are not being purposefully and calculatedly segregated according to race, like the children of the 1960’s, rather, they are being separated inadvertently.
Without close regulation, the gap between the races of students in schools has grown, mostly due to the addition of more schools in school districts to accommodate for population growth. No longer is there just one high school, middle school, and elementary school in a school district as before, now there are multiple. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were about 13,500 public school districts and 98,500 public schools in 2013 (The National Center for Education Statistics). Essentially, there’s a school for every couple of neighborhoods in a school district. If there is a school in the predominately white area of a town that means the students that will attend that school will be predominately white, and the same for predominately minority areas of a town, thus unintentionally segregating schools. Although the accommodation of population and the addition of shiny new schools is beneficial, it is also unconsciously separating our nation’s children from one another.
The fact that there are schools that are strictly one race may not surprise or rouse some, but, what goes on in those schools surely will. To start off, about 60% of schools in the United States had 50% or more white enrollment in 2013 compared to the 9% of schools that had 50% or more black enrollment and the 15% of schools that had 50% or more Hispanic enrollment (Aud and Fox). Analytically, there are significantly more white students then minority students. In addition, it is a known fact that minority students (Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaskan Native students) score significantly lower than white students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 54% of black students scored below average at the fourth grade level on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) reading achievement in 2007 (Aud and Fox). Hispanic students surpassed this number with 60% of students scoring below average on the NAEP (Aud and Fox). White students fell far below their fellow black and Hispanic counterparts, with only 22% of them scoring below average on the NAEP (Aud and Fox). This gap in achievement can be largely contributed to the demographics of schools as previously stated and the conditions of these demographically segregated schools. In minority schools the percentage of new, inexperienced teachers is significantly greater than that of predominately white schools. Only 10% of teachers in predominately white schools are new or inexperienced, where as 12.9% in black schools, 15.4% in Hispanic schools, 15.7% in Asian/Pacific Islander schools, and 13.8% in American Indian/Native Alaskan schools are the teachers new or inexperienced (Aud and Fox). It is very clear why minority students aren’t scoring as high as their counterparts. Minority schools do not have the same experienced instruction as white schools, which is visibly affecting the education of the nation’s children.
Moreover, one might state that the student gets out what they put in; if a child is not studying they are not going to test well. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, minority students spend just about the same amount of hours per week as white students (Aud and Fox). On average, black students spend 6.3 hours a week doing homework or studying as compared to the 6.8 hours spent by white students a week (Aud and Fox). Even further, more parents of minority students check to make sure their children’s homework is done compared to white students. In fact, 83.1% of black parents, 75.6% of Hispanic parents, and 59.0% of Asian parents checking homework compared to 57.2% of white parents (Aud and Fox). It is no question that minority students have the drive and the wish to learn just as much as their counterparts, it is the question of are they given the proper education they deserve? The answer is no. With resegregation looming and inexperienced teachers trying to do their best, minority students are being thrown to the wolves in terms of their education, something that cannot continue to happen. Minority students deserve, just as much as majority students, the education that they strive to obtain and that is something that should not be take from them, even accidentally.
The next big disparity between our nation’s students is the ever growing divide in economic status. The divide between upper class and middle and low class citizens has grown at an alarming rate in the last couple of years, with the middle class virtually disappearing into the lower class. This divide, much like race, has great effects on students in schools. The best way to see this divide is to identify how many students receive free and reduced meals in schools. Free and reduced meals are apart of one of the many programs enacted by the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (USDA) to ensure that every child has a meal during school, even if their family cannot afford to pay the prices for the meals. Children are eligible for free and reduced meals based on their family’s income, so ideally, children of low income families benefit the most out of this program by receiving meals in school even if their family cannot afford it. Overall, within our nation’s public schools there is a greater number of students receiving free and reduced lunches than students not receiving free and reduced lunches. 27% of all public schools have 50.1% to 75.0% of students that receive free and reduced meals while only 18% of all public schools have 0% to 25% of students that receive free and reduced meals (Kena et al.). This means that majority of the nation’s students cannot even afford to buy lunch at school, a price that is usually around $4.00 for a full meal.
Not only are low income children struggling economically, they are also struggling educationally. High income students perform significantly better in school then low income students. High income students are even more likely to go to college then low income students. In 2013, less than 50% of low income students enrolled in 2 or 4 year colleges after high school compared to the 80% of high income students that enrolled in 2 or 4 year colleges after high school (Kena et al). This gap in college participation among incomes can be largely contributed to the lack of preparation given in low income schools compared to high income schools. In schools where 0% to 25.0% of its students receive free and reduced meals 87.7% of those schools offer college prep and Advanced Placement (AP) classes to its students (Clinedinst, Hurley, and Hawkins). In schools where 76% to 100% of its students receive free and reduced meals only 66.3% of those offer college prep and AP classes to its students (Clinedinst, Hurley, and Hawkins).
Gender, much like race and class, has limited the nation’s students from achieving sound educations. As said by Adrienne Rich:
If there is any misleading concept, it is that of “coeducation”: that because women and men are sitting in the same classrooms, hearing the same lectures, reading the same books, performing the same laboratory experiments, they are receiving an equal education. They are not, first because the content of education itself validates men even as it invalidates women. It’s very message is that men have been the shapers, and the thinkers of the world, and that this is only natural (393).
Adrienne Rich discussed in her essay “Taking Women Students Seriously” the effect that effect that gender issues had had on her and her educational career. According to Rich “women students were simply not taken seriously” (Rich 391). Although we are no longer in the feminism-less 50’s, gender inequality is still found in education today, only not in the manner that the average person would think.
Since the addition of Title XI to education laws, the successes of female students has surpassed that of male students. It was observed that female students were not given the same opportunities as male students and certain aspects of education were changed. Now, with the increased focus of catching female students up, male students are starting to fall behind. In 2013, the average female student scored a 292 when tested on reading abilities (Kena et al.). Male students, how ever, scored 10 points below that number, with the average male student scoring a 282 (Kena et al.). Male students are also less likely to graduate from high school and move on to either a 2 year or 4-year institution than fellow female students (Kena et al.). In 2014, 19% of male students did not graduate from high school and 37% of those that did graduate high school went on to a 2 or 4-year college as compared to the 15% of female students that did not graduate with 43% of those that did graduate moving on a 2 or 4-year college (Kena et al.). Male students are even more likely to be held back a year in school as compared to their female counterparts. A dramatic 61% of middle school boys were held back a year as compared to 36% of middle school girls in 2010 (Office for Civil Rights). Female students have had their time to adequately grow in their education with the right tools, now it is time to shift the scope of education.
The scope of education should not just be shifted in gender cases. The scope of education should be shifted in all cases, regardless of the color of a student’s skin, income of a student’s family, and gender of a student. All students should be focused on and given the materials to succeed in life and achieve everything dreamt of. No longer should education be focusing on getting one student ahead of the next, separating smart from ignorant, rich from poor. Education should focus on every single student sitting in a class room, no matter the size of the school, demographic of the school, whatever that might be used as an excuse to put students further back than they should. As children we are taught from a young age that education is the “meal ticket” to success. The people that go to school and obtain a degree will have better pick of the stock of jobs, make more money, and overall be happier in life. How though, is it possible to tell our children this but then rip any hopes of obtaining the golden meal ticket that education is suppose to give them away from them? How can we continue to build our children up to want to be successful people in this world, only to take away the materials that they need to get where they wish to go? It is very simple, we cannot. We cannot continue to do this to our children, the same people that will be our doctors, firefighters, lawyers, librarians, and even teachers. We can not limit our children to shortening their dreams to what is only available. Every child dreams and every child should obtain those dreams. We are often asked what we want to be when we grow up, but how come we are not allowed to achieve that goal? Educational systems must be reformed so that every child can pass a test, take an AP class, or go to college.
Given these points, I am asking you, a hopefully newly empowered reader, to write your school district superintendents, congressmen, senators, who ever you think will listen. Write them and inform them you want a change. Raise funds for your local low income school or donate schools supplies to children in need. Take control of your child’s education, make sure they have all the materials required to be successful and remind them to utilize those materials. Fight for our nation’s children, your children. Because in the student that did not make it past the tenth grade could be the cure to cancer, the agricultural solution to drought, or the answer to all of the world’s problems.
Works Cited
Aud, Susan and Fox, Mary Ann. Status and Trends in Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups (NCES 2010-015). U.S Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S Government Printing Office.
Clinedinst, Melissa E., Hurley, Sarah F., Hawkins, David A. State of College Admission 2011. National Association for College Admission Counseling. Arlington, VA. Retrieved 3 Nov. 2015 from http//:nacacnet.org
DeParle, Jason. “For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall.” nytimes.com. New York Times, 22 Dec. 2012. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
“Inequality.” Entry 1. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
Kena, G., Musu-Gillette, L., Robinson, J., e.t al. (2015). The Condition of Education 2015 (NCES 2015-144). U.S Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC. Retrieved 3 Nov. 2015 from http//:nces.ed.gov/pubsearch.
National Center for Education Statistics. “Fast Facts: Back to School Statistics.” National Center for Education Statistics. National Center for Education Statistics, n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
Office for Civil Rights. “Gender Equality in Education.” U.S Department of Education. U.S Department of Education, June 2012. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
The Leadership Conference. “Brown v. Board of Education.” The Leadership Conference. The Leadership Conference, n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
The Leadership Conference. “Resegregation.” The Leadership Conference. The Leadership Conference, n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
Rich, Adrienne. “Taking Women Students Seriously.” Race, Class, and Gender. Ed. Margaret L. Andersen and Patricia Hill Collins. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1992. 390-96. Print.
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