Children In America's Schools: Inequality In Education

Children In America's Schools: Inequality In Education

Movie Application: Inequality of Education in “Children in America’s Schools”
Race and class still divide U.S. society as it did decades ago, especially when you look at it in relation to education. While some changes were made to equalize funding in schools when legal segregation ended, the educational experiences for minority students have continued to be substantially separate and unequal. Many minority and economically disadvantaged students live in urban regions in which the property taxes are higher, leaving less expenditure to go towards education. Sadly enough, part of the reason these poor, minority students do not want to attend school or go on to higher education is because they do not feel they deserve it if their school is practically deteriorating. In this vicious cycle, government feels that it would be pointless to put more funds into schools in low-income communities because students will not be as successful as students of wealthier families.
In one of the Ohio public school we saw in the video documentary “Children in America’s School,” the walls of the school were actually leaking making walking around the school a safety hazard (1998). In one of the rural schools, students were released for lunch because they did not have the funds to supply school lunches or an adequate cafeteria which is a direct cause of poor nutrition and obesity when there is a lack of healthy places to eat surrounding the school. This leads to students not returning to campus after lunch, developing unhealthy habits, and getting behind in their classes. These health conditions perpetuate socioeconomic and educational inequalities because they make it seem as though government does not care about fixing the problems. It is almost like they simply assume that such squalid conditions are what students are used to outside of school, which are typically poor neighborhoods. If students are facing health problems due to the lack of cleanliness or nutrition provided...