National Context
The U.S ranked fourteenth in education systems worldwide. Education in the United States is extremely hard to compare and contrast because the laws and policies vary and are different in each individual state. However, because of the different policies and different laws, there are many problems and issues that come along with this. Many different states, usually the urban areas and big cities are the ones who suffer most. For example New York City has the largest schools system in the nation. And just like many other cities including Chicago, the schooling, although public, depends on what neighborhood you are living in. A study from Schott Foundation for Public Education Redlining in New York City tells us that “that the communities where most of the city’s poor, black and Hispanic students live suffer from New York policies and practices that give their schools the fewest resources and their students the least experienced teachers” This is important to know, because in many cases neighborhood schools are considered “bad,” but its not because they simply are bad kids, it is about the resources. If you do not give a child the tools necessary to succeed they will not be able to go further. They give these students and staff few resources to work with, then give them test’s to prove that they make progress, almost as a threat to close it down, and then expect them to do well. This is unfair, this not only happens in New York, this is something that is happening every where in the country. We have many people fighting against this, and many voices in communities, but we need more voices to be able to get someone to hear the cries of help. |
Just like New York, Chicago too has a public education system set up where the quality of your education depends on where you are located. Around May of 2013 Chicago Public School’s voted to close 50 schools as well as co locate around 17 elementary schools.What is even more devastating than closing schools down, is that most of these schools being shut down were in neighborhoods that were majority black. According to Chicago Teachers Union Department of Research, “90% had a majority Black student population and 71% had a majority Black teaching staff,” and “Schools with a majority Black student population and majority Black teaching staff were 10 times more likely to be closed or turned around than schools with a minority Black student population and teaching staff. ” This means that not only do these neighborhood schools have to worry about resources being so scarce and worry about the quality of the education, they now have to worry about whether or not their children will be able to come back to a school the next year. These school systems are extremely corrupt. Because Federal funding can only influence these systems, we rely on the state. These states do not support what is happening in our school systems. One thing that we can say the whole nation educational system has in common is that we really emphasize on competition. We teach our students to be ready to fight to the top and fight to be the best, instead of worrying about who they are as a person. These problems will not disappear, we need to come together to stop these injustices.
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