This is a social problem.
Let’s address a narrative that’s all too common in US cities, a narrative over-looked by the government, but is one of the most pressing modern social problems.
Imagine this.
Scenario 1:
A boy born and raised in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, 44128.
He is extremely talented and creative, both intelligent and emotionally competent, and full of potential and aspiration. He is all of these things and more, despite being surrounded by community violence, a shaky support system, and poverty.
He attends John F. Kennedy High School in the Cleveland Municipal School District, which has limited funding, dwindling resources, and lacks passionate staff.
His school did not have the resources to provide several sports programs to keep him busy, did not have the funds to keep passionate teachers in the school system that would take the extra step to give him one-on-one attention when he was not grasping a concept, and did not have the extra money to allocate funds to incentives and programming that would make school an environment students where students want to thrive and spend their time. He fell victim to his environment, convinced school was not for him, dropped out and becomes another statistic of the prison system.
Scenario 2:
A boy born and raised in the city of Solon, Ohio, 44139.
He is extremely talented and creative, both intelligent and emotionally competent, and full of potential and aspiration. He is all of these things and more, and privileged to be surrounded by an uplifting community, and strong support system, and experience a comfortable quality of life.
He attends Solon High School in Solon City School District, which has a strong foundation of funding, an abundance of resources, and high energy staff.
His school did have the resources to provide several sports programs to keep him busy, which incentivized him to keep his grades up. The school did have the funds to keep passionate teachers in the school system that would make the extra effort to ensure he understood every concept. They did have the extra money to allocate funds to incentives and programming that would make school an environment students where students want to thrive and spend their time. He became one with his environment, graduated with above a 3.5 GPA and sports scholarship to a 4-year university.
These two stories are the biographies of people I personally know, and are not uncommon from the respective areas.
How do two boys with: equal amounts of potential, located just 21 miles away from each other, come out of the same U.S. Public Education system, with such different destinies?
Is one inherently ‘worse’ than the other? No.
Is one smarter than the other? Absolutely not.
Oh, one cared about school more than the other? Still not it.
Confused? I’ll clarify for you. The answer is systematic oppression.
Systematic oppression ROOTED in the lack of funding of city public school systems, which just happen to consistent of majority black and brown children.
Many public school systems receive a block of their funding from local property taxes. For those districts whose median income is around 100k, such as Solon City School District, this is great! The amount of revenue accumulated is enough to properly pay administrators, teachers, while maintaining a beautiful building and programming and resources for the students. But for districts whose median income is around 25k, such as Cleveland Municipal School District, where does that leave them? (Ohio Department of Education, 2018) There is no logic behind the communities who have faced the most adversity and oppression to have the least amount of resources, unless the logic is to keep them economically immobile and to intensify the cycle of oppression.
Did I mention John F. Kennedy High School’s minority enrollment is 99%?
Now, it is obvious this is an issue I am concerned about. But just in case you are still skeptical about this actually being a social issue, I will provide some reasons why you should be concerned:
- Underfunded and failing school districts often have a correlation with community violence and deterioration. The most impactful way to prevent community violence is school based intervention, as well as community based work. Not only are the demographic zoned to these school districts at-risk of violence because of where there were born, they are put in spaces that can not afford to do prevention nor intervention. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018) These districts include you favorite city’s “downtown”, so anyone can be impacted by this issue of violence.
- This is affecting innocent children. “If legislature continues to shortchange schools, a child’s opportunity will be determined by the accident of their zip code.” -Michael Churchill, Lawyer at Public Interest Center
- Public education access is embedded in the Constitution. Under the 14th amendment, which is an equal protection clause, requires that if a state makes a public education system, no child in the state may be denied equal access to schooling. (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2018)The specific court case that lead to this decision can be found here, if you would prefer the proof. That means the students in Cleveland should be given the same quality and access to education as the students in Solon, according to America.
Now, if those reasons did not resonate with you, check out the following. Let’s talk money:
Underfunded school districts and lack of opportunity widen the gap between the wealthy and poor, which will continue to cause: A decline in full-time employment, a rise in unstable employment, stagnant wages for ALL workers (including middle class), a lack of economic growth in cities, the collapse of many economic infrastructures, and will eventually lead to a recession. (Cucchiaria, 2013)
So, whether you are monetarily or morally driven, the disparity in the funding of public education is a REAL social problem that severely impacts marginalized groups as well as the rest of the United State’s economy.
The public education system is just one of many ways the government insures the racial and socio-economic hierarchy that is so embedded in the United States foundation.
What can you do? Advocate for policies that do not rely on tax payer dollars to fund the base of every economic system in America: education. Donate to school fundraisers. Get out and VOTE for local, state, and federal government officials that show they want to change this problem. Educate yourself on your state’s education policy. Click here for a link to the Education Commission website that debriefs all of the current policies up for debate, which is a good place to start getting educated about a system that has such a big impact on our societies Quality of Life. Read the book Marketing Schools, Marketing Cities: Who Wins and Who Loses When Schools Become Urban Amenities by Maia Bloomfield Cucchiara.
Use your privilege for good.
It takes one person.
Bring awareness.
Don’t be silent.
“…with liberty and justice for all.” -The United States of America
References:
“Cleveland Municipal School District Fiscal Budget 2017.” Cleveland Metro Schools, www.clevelandmetroschools.org/cms/lib05/OH01915844/Centricity/Domain/39/SY2016-17-BudgetBook-Screen-Final.pdf.
Costly, Andrew. “BRIA 7 4 c Education and the 14th Amendment.” Constitutional Rights Foundation, www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-7-4-c-education-and-the-14th-amendment.
Cucchiara, Maia. Marketing Schools, Marketing Cities: Who Wins and Who Loses When Schools Become Urban Amenities.
Hanna, Maddie. “Gap between Rich and Poor Pa. School Districts Has Grown, Lawsuit Says.” Themorningcall.com, 9 July 2018, www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-nws-pa-school-funding-lawsuit-20180708-story.html.
“Pages — Ohio School Report Cards.” Pages — District-Report, reportcard.education.ohio.gov/Pages/default.aspx.“Resource Title:State Education Policy Tracking.” Education Commission of the States, www.ecs.org/state-education-policy-tracking/.
Turner, Cory, et al. “Why America’s Schools Have A Money Problem.” NPR, NPR, 18 Apr. 2016, www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem.
“Understanding School Violence.” Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018, www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/School_Violence_Fact_Sheet-a.pdf.
