Fairness and equity - Stephanie

Stephanie Bradshaw

Blog 1

June 23, 2013

The issue that jumped out at me that I still have a difficult time rationalizing throughout the first 3 chapters of Schools is the inequity in education in our country.  From wealthy children in the 1700s getting to go to school while poor farming children received no formal schooling to extreme inequities between black and white children’s educational quality, we seem unable to find a way to truly give each child in the United States an equal education. 

This issue resonates so strongly for me partially because fairness, equity, and justice are core character strengths within me.  In fact, when we took the authentic happiness VIA character strengths survey in Matt’s class this past spring, fairness, equity, and justice was my strongest character strength out of all 24 character strengths.  I do not understand how people in our current day in age can justify the discrimination and inequalities, not only education but other freedoms some of us take for granted in our country, that happen each and every day all around the country. 

With regard to educational inequity, to me it is a crucial issue because the children we are educating and raising today are our country’s future leaders.  If we neglect to give each child in our country the very best education we can (the education each and every child deserves), we are setting ourselves up for greater issues that must be dealt with 20 years from now.

The part of this issue that really gets under my skin is that these children who are being educated in dilapidated schools, with unqualified teachers, with few resources, etc. were born into their situation.  They did not get to choose to receive an excellent education or to just settle for mediocrity or even worse, to suffer through substandard conditions.  The “mistakes” of their parents are trapping them in a cycle often leading to poverty and/or incarceration.  It is simply not fair that these children do not get their best chance of breaking that cycle which comes through better education. 

My goal for all children is not that they receive a college level education.  I do not believe college is for every student nor is it necessary for all students.  As we discussed in class, many good paying jobs are better learned through an apprenticeship or at a technical/vocational school.  However, our current educational system is losing children starting in elementary school.  Although they may not officially drop out in these early grades, they are receiving such a sub-standard education and falling farther and farther behind their peers that they are essentially falling out of the system.  Our goal should be that each and every child in America is receiving the best quality education we can possibly give them.

The part of this issue I don’t fully understand yet is how education is actually funded and what impact that has on the unequal education many students are receiving.  I know it is not all solved by more money thrown at the problem as that’s been done before.  However, it seems that funding is still a piece of the problem along with how those funds are managed.  I don’t know how much local property taxes account for district funding compared to state or federal dollars.  Local taxes were a carryover from the early school systems in the 1800s.  As it created then, there is a huge difference in how much funding some areas pull from taxes.  This creates inequities in how much teachers are paid which plays a part in how many highly qualified teachers get recruited and are retained by districts.  One of the most influential components in the quality of education is the quality of the teacher children have year after year.  True, families are free to choose where they live and some families have that ability to choose a “good” state or “good” district because of their educational system.  However, those that cannot just move out of their situation have to settle for the quality of education of their local schools.  I don’t think children should be “punished” with substandard education simply because of where they live. 

I believe we should be able to find a way to make education more equitable for all children in the United States no matter what ethnicity they are, gender they are, language they speak, or income level of their parents.  If we don’t stop repeating the mistakes of the past, we’re not giving ourselves a very good chance to level the playing field in education – a mistake we are going to be paying for in the near future.