"Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself." - William Dean Howells
Growing up I was pretty oblivious to the world around me, that I never really opened my eyes. But this is also why I am researching this, so that students don't have to be oblivious to the injustices that are going on around them every day. Sometimes when we don't see different and the situation we live in is all we know, we don't tend to see the bad, we settle for what is, and this is not okay, especially when what we are settling for is education. One thing to note is that inequalities in education are not rare, and this is the primary problem. We live our whole life in the United States around this idea that we need to be in school for half our lives to get an education, when in reality we are not given our constitutional right of quality education for all. In the U.S, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school every year, and about 25% of freshmen do not graduate on time. This is huge, and scary. The problem is not what is wrong with this kids, rather than what is wrong with the system. The quality of Education should not be based on neighborhoods, test scores, or grades, especially because the system for the public should not discriminate.- Alejandra
I have witnessed the dramatic change from a suburban school to being enrolled in a public education system. Entering the Chicago Public School (CPS) district 229 I have encountered many inequalities. From attending school in Oak Lawn, district 123 a Southside suburb to now inner city CPS I have seen how the quality of education differs from one another. I was very used to having well supplied recourses growing up. I never once remember my teachers having to leave school and go have to purchase any school supplies with their own money. Once I began school in an urban area I never thought we lack so many resources due to where we were located. Sometimes in Social Justice our teachers would have to leave in order to go purchase paper because we ran out. This issue matters because it is unfair that in one area there is a high stock of supplies and another always has to request them. The high school I would have attended receives over 30 million each year in revenue.[1] When Chicago Public Schools vary in funds because it reflects on the attendance of the students. Funds should not be the reason why a school should shut down because that it not the students nor the teachers fault that that the necessary supplies is not there to reach academic success.- Athena
Education should be equal to everyone but yet inequalities exist in education and they have changed the way education systems are set up. Children that receive less resources receive less opportunities. These children have a right to a good quality education and all we’re doing is closing down schools and putting money to build charter schools. But what does this solve? Absolutely nothing, to fix the problem we first must address the problem. We need quality education with capable and qualified staff to instruct, educate and empower these children. I have been enrolled in many CPS schools throughout my elementary schooling and high schooling. With that being said, i have had the chance to see the differences in every school, although all of them being a CPS school, many of these schools had different resources and different things. I have seen schools that have it all and I have seen schools that do not have practically anything. According to, www.dosomething.org “The U.S. which had some of the highest graduation rates of any developed country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries.” This means that throughout the years, the united states has dropped drastically when it comes to education and this is really bad. We need to stop worrying about unnecessary things and start to begin to worry about what we are doing wrong when it comes to education and graduation rates. We need to begin to reform.-Leo
Leopoldo Cesar Jacquez
Alejandra Carrizales
Athena Marie Castro
Social Justice High School
Alejandra Carrizales
Athena Marie Castro
Social Justice High School