All Happy Schools Are Alike
All happy schools are alike; each unhappy school is unhappy in its own way. Replace “school” for “family” and you can derive this expression to the famous 19th century Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy’s novel, Anna Karenina.
As a teacher and past student in the United States education system, I have experienced three distinct types of public schools: the inner-city, majority-minority school, the low-income, rural school, and the suburban, middle-class school. I will explain why public schools are happily alike and unhappily different in their own way in order to provide a snapshot of the current the state of education in the United States.
Inner City, Majority-Minority School
The first type of school I experienced was my alma mater; the inner city, majority-minority school, where the percentage of those living below the poverty line is usually higher than the United States average of 11.4%, according to recent statistics. The term “inner city” is often used as a euphemism in the United States referring to lower-income residential districts in a downtown or city area.
These inner city schools usually suffer from a lack of funding due to multiple historical factors and reasons. To understand why many inner-city schools lack the resources to maximize student learning, one must always look back to understand what was sown in the past before contextualizing what has been reaped in the present.
Historical Context
One of the first causes of such lack of funding is the historical patterns of institutional racism that permeated in the various laws and regulations of the United States for centuries. These specific laws and regulations occurred at the federal, state, and local levels of government.
To be more specific, the Jim Crow laws were used in the Southern United States where state and local laws enforced racial segregation. These laws were a reaction to the Confederacy’s loss against the North during the American Civil War. These laws were upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1896 in the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson, in which the Court laid out its “separate but equal” legal doctrine concerning facilities for Black Americans. The effects of such laws and policies are ubiquitously found everywhere in the present-day South, from rural to urban.
While the North may have defeated the South in the American Civil War, leading to the abolition of slavery, many state and local governments were not free of racist policies long after. During World War I in 1916, in what was known as the start of “The Great Migration”, about 500,000 Black Americans migrated from the rural South, to cities in the North, Midwest, and West to obtain employment in war and other industries; especially in steel and meatpacking. Eventually, over 6 million Black Americans would migrate out of the South and into major cities in the rest of the country between 1916–1970, according to Jill Lepore. With this movement came great political and economic resistance from European immigrants in cities such as Boston and Chicago. Consequently, the practice of redlining would soon develop — where financial services are withheld from potential customers who reside in neighborhoods classified as ‘hazardous’ to investment. The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation — established in 1933 as a government-sponsored corporation as a part of FDR’s New Deal — is often cited as the originator of mortgage redlining. HOLC maps generated during the 1930s to assess credit-worthiness were color-coded by mortgage security risk, with majority black areas disproportionately marked in red indicating designation as “hazardous.” Subsequently, many were denied access to credit and insurance just for having lived in red-marked area, paving the way for lack of investment opportunity for individuals and the formation of modern ghettos — areas where lower-income people are clustered together that have become predominant parts of cities.
Decades of racist legal practices and policies devastated families that once moved to certain cities in order for better economic opportunity. These policies effectively stunted said opportunity for many Black Americans seeking their own pursuit of happiness. This initial cause of the state of education in present-day inner-cities can not be overstated.
Denial of G.I. Bill Benefits to Black Veterans
In the United States during the 1940s, mortgage support, college tuition, and business loans for World War II veterans provided through the G.I. Bill, allowed for better economic opportunity for those who would receive the benefits. Unfortunately, 1.2 million black veterans were denied these integral benefits. As the years went on, white veterans flowed into newly created suburbs, where they began amassing wealth in skilled positions. The postwar housing boom almost entirely excluded Black Americans, most of whom remained in cities that received less and less investment from businesses and banks. With the practice of redlining still permeating well into the 1950s, lenders denied capital to those in poorer neighborhoods, ensuring that loan assistance and insurance would be denied. Once again, these practices were not exclusively in the South. Residential covenants were ubiquitous throughout the nation. One covenant from a neighborhood in 1950s Seattle stated: “That no part of said property hereby conveyed shall ever be used or occupied by the Hebrew, Ethiopian, Malay, or any Asiatic race.”
Practices of redlining and blockbusting only enhanced the legal restrictions many Black Americans faced after moving to the cities. Denying over a million military veterans economic opportunity was not only shamefully abhorrent, but also contributed to the socioeconomic decline of black families. Thus, a decline in financial status of households would lead to a decline in the financial status of the cities’ schools.
White Flight
In 1950, many majority white cities in the Midwest and Northeast would reach their population peak before White Americans would move to the suburbs — residential areas miles outside of the city centers typically associated with higher levels of income and home ownership. These cities include Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 would only help accelerate this trend with the creation of the modern Interstate Highway System allowing for easier accesses of transport corresponding with rising car ownership rates. Many whites would continue this trend after the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka — where the Court unanimously decided that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
Thus, with the exodus of white families also came the exodus of necessary tax revenue for public schools. Since school funding is dictated by city residents’ tax dollars, a loss of revenue would mean a loss in critical resources to facilitate student learning.
Automation
“I believe the best social program is a job.” — Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States.
However, without jobs (especially higher-paying, higher-skill, manufacturing jobs), the only social programs left are the ones created by government, the entity in which Reagan deemed as the last resort for an individual; the government should “not run their lives.” Social programs do not increase incentive for an individual to find a job when a guaranteed income and housing are provided.
While many coincide United States job losses with rising globalization, according to a study by the Center for Business and Economic Research, 85 percent of job losses are attributable to evolving technologies, such as artificial intelligence, automated and electronic manufacturing and management. Consequently, these technological advancements substantially increase efficiency, productivity while replacing manufacturing sector jobs. Over the last 70 years, the United States has evolved from a more manufacturing-based economy — where workers are higher-skilled, hence paid more — to a service sector economy; phase three of the three-sector model of modern economies. The value and importance of blue-collar, unionized work has declined, and those of professional workers in the sciences and information technology fields grow in value and prevalence.
The rise in automation only added to the continuous, decades-long decline of many American cities by eliminating the once higher-paying jobs, and replacing with automation and lower-skill, lower-paying service sector jobs. Once again, this means less economic opportunity for those already living in the cities.
Conclusion
The urban decay in the United States can not be ignored. The political, legal, social, cultural and economic issues spanning decades have had a generational impact on those living in the cities today. There is much more to say about inner-city schools than the rural or suburban schools; not just because I spent 13 years in them, but also because they are larger and much more complex to compartmentalize their existing problems. The rise of drug usage, single parenthood, and gang violence since the 1970s must be noted. Throwing money at the problem has been proven to be ineffective. In order to best address these concerns, it ultimately starts in the home; then the neighborhood; and finally the community at-large.
Low-Income, Rural School
The second type of school I experienced is the low-income, rural school — an area residing even further away from the more populated suburbs outside of a city that can be miles or tens of miles away from a city center. Rural America has much more land and a much lower rate of people per square mile. Much of rural America comprises of 2,500 people or less.
Funding
Due to the lesser number of people residing in the countryside, there is automatically less tax revenue that can be devoted towards necessary resources for these types of schools. For example, my last school I taught at was still occupying a 100-year old building with notable structural damage. Less funding means less investment towards better infrastructure, better technology, and better teachers. Many rural schools are disproportionately suffering from the present teacher shortage the nation is facing. This lack of funding significantly impacts rural teachers pay. According to a 2017 study by the National Conference of State Legislatures, rural teachers made an average starting salary of $33,200, compared with their suburban counterparts, who earned $40,500. Some rural schools have opted for four-day school weeks in order to combat these financial challenges and to hope to incentivize prospective teachers.
Jobs
One thing rural America lacks besides people is economic opportunity. With the continuous mechanization of farming over the last 150 years in the United States, less and less agriculture jobs became unavailable. Another potential factor for job losses over the last several decades is the rise of multinational corporations — specifically Walmart — sucking main street America dry. Hence, many of the smaller “mom-and-pop,” family-owned businesses were decimated and bankrupted by the modern corporate robber-barons.
Conclusion
The lack of local tax revenue that provides funding for rural schools is the number one reason for any issues regarding their state of education. Factors such as automation have not had much effect on rural America since the late 1800s. The first wave of automation ultimately spawned from rural America with the mechanization of farming, but once most Americans began to migrate to the cities and then the suburbs, the better jobs have been found in those two parts ever since. If you observe the typical rural American town, you will often find similar trends: a dollar store, your standard McDonalds, dilapidated homes, your local gossip, a relic of a town square and worst of all, hopelessness. Much of this hopelessness is reflected in not just many of the students who attend the local school, but in many of the staff working there.
Suburban, Middle-Class School
The third and last type of school I have experienced is where I work currently; the suburban, middle-class school. Once again, these schools are associated with residential areas miles outside of city centers, and typically associated with higher levels of income and home ownership.
Socioeconomic Context
Suburban schools can attribute their growing wealth and success to the flight of white families beginning in the 1950s and the growing economic success of college-educated workers. Women’s rights movements coinciding with rising rates of women graduating college, have allowed women to climb the economic ladder and subsequently raise their family’s standard of living. The percentage of children living with married parents is higher relative to urban families. Suburban areas are predominantly white in most of the country with higher percentages of Asian Americans in the west coast states.
Jobs
In the 1950s, Ford Motor Company moved its headquarters from Detroit to Dearborn, Michigan. In 1991, Chrysler moved its headquarters from Detroit to Auburn Hills, Michigan. Both of these are suburbs just outside Detroit’s city center. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are located in major suburbs outside the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C. Apple, Meta, and Google’s headquarters are all located just miles from the San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area. Jobs at large S&P 500 headquarters typically make high figures. The people working these jobs do not typically live in the city. Instead, they either live within that suburban town or the one adjacent to it. With these high-paying salaries come high tax revenue for the various schools residing in those areas.
Funding
With more funds, schools can now access and utilize the best technologies in order to maximize the academic experience for students. For example, the classroom on the first floor at my present school engages with virtual reality technologies for everyone to see walking by the glass windows. These software and hardware applications will only continue to be used more and more in workplaces going forward into the future. To complement these higher-quality technologies found in suburban schools, more funds also means hiring higher-quality educators for students. Teachers just like anyone else want to receive a good salary, thus by having a higher salary schedule, suburban schools attract more competition among teachers that wish to be hired. With this higher pay will also come higher retention rates for teachers at these schools.
As a bonus for better funding, many suburban schools thrive in competitive sports due to their ability to provide financial support for quality practice facilities for students and coaches.
Conclusion
Suburban public schools have proven to be a paradigm for a high-quality academic environment. The housing boom that has accelerated since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic will only add to the suburban success story. The suburbs have displayed no signs of slowing down as those in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, and Texas have shown. A combination of lower crime, lower tax rates, and less bureaucracy make suburbs a good destination for many people’s “American Dream.” A good part of that dream is a person wanting more for their children than they had. Attending a school that provides a quality education is a good start on that path.
Final Word
All happy schools are alike: Better funding, better technologies, better teachers, better administrators, better students, and better parents. It takes everyone to create success for the community as a whole. No single solution can resolve the unhappy schools. Everyone has to play their part. The rise of the American suburbs and the decline of many American cities is easily reflected in the test scores, graduation rates, and behavioral reports of all the public schools being measured. If you’re an aspiring parent, take note of the schools becoming happier and those becoming unhappier. It may just mean reshaping your child’s future towards a better path.
