week 4 reading

Housing inequality, and in particular residential segregation, affects inequality in schooling by causing teachers to “work within structural inequalities that impede many students from achieving their potential.” This meaning, due to these inequalities all students are not able to learn to the same capacity, causing them to miss out on how great they can be. The New York Times piece ‘Without Fixing Inequality, The Schools are Always Going to Struggle’, written by Lora Kelley, allowed teachers to write in and share their experience of how the neighborhoods which children are born in affect their futures. Amir Tehari, a high school economics teacher in Sacramento wrote “My students do not normally advance beyond where they were born. The story of ZIP codes is a story of dreams stolen away from children.” This statement is heartbreaking to read. Despite that fact that America is referred to as “the land of opportunity” it seems like children’s futures are basically predetermined for them. They are limited with what they can do just because they were born in an area with an underfunded school district or don’t have enough money to be sent to private school.

Another teacher, Luis Santiago from Florida, writes how after teaching for 29 years he knows that almost all parents want their children to succeed but ultimately, “socioeconomic factors prevail.” This meaning factors like income, employment, and where they are located end up getting in the way of all students being successful. In the column, ‘Defund the Private Schools’, Andre Perry talks about a possible solution to educational inequality. He writes that we must “dismantle the structures that generate racial disparities”, specifically private schools. He goes into detail about how the choice of white families to send their students to private schools instead of public schools has led to $23 billion less in funding for schools that are predominated by people of color. I support this recommendation because public schools have continued to be underfunded despite the fact this country acts like they value education so much. So if defunding private schools could help solve the educational inequality that is taking place, I am for it. All kids should have the right to an equal education and equal opportunities.