The Prince and the Pauper of Education
In my previous excerpt, I made mention of various economic factors the disproportionately impact certain races. This was necessary because to talk about the achievement gap one has to bring up how poverty affects student education but here I am going to discuss exclusively how students with less financial means are having to struggle way harder than should be necessary for a country like the United States. After the lows of the recession in 2008, the economy of the united states has been rounding into form in recent years but you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at how much money we put into education. Matthew Lynch in the article “POVERTY AND SCHOOL FUNDING: WHY LOW-INCOME STUDENTS OFTEN SUFFER” states that “34 states are contributing less funding on a per-student basis than they did prior to the recession years. Since states are responsible for 44 percent of total education funding in the U.S., these dismal numbers mean a continued crackdown on school budgets despite an improving economy”. It’s gotten to the point wherein some local area officials have to take money from other vital services just to cover bare essentials like furnishings and textbooks since the state is not providing enough money to maintain schools effectively. This lack of funding hit those who are already in poverty the hardest. In essence, the students in these situations are being hit on both fronts as they not only suffer from a lack of resources at home but they also have to attend a school where things are not much better. Funding to title 1 schools has been steadily decreasing ever since 2010 and many schools have cut any sort of Pre-k program to cut costs. Just think kids go from a situation a family situation where they may not get enough rest or didn’t have breakfast or don’t have more than three sets of clothes to school where it’s the same or worse there seems to be no change get in the mind of the student and no pint in actively participating. Field trips aren’t possible due to your family’s situation so you get sent with another class a weird if not embarrassing experience. You can’t participate in any extracurricular activities because your parents need you home to watch your siblings and even if you weren’t your family doesn’t have the money to pay the sports dues anyways. This is the reality for many students throughout America and it takes a toll not just on their academics but also on their mental health. Building off that this past year has been especially difficult for students from low-income households. According to Anna Johnson from Georgetown University, only 29 percent of teachers reported having all students in their class actually participating at any level in the class. Nearly one in five parents that their child never communicated with their teacher once distance learning began. These numbers are important they show us many children are simply not getting the education they should have. Most often these students not able to succeed in distance learning are those from low wealth families. At least when students physically went to school there were programs in place to try and help these kids in difficult situations. Free and reduced lunch was amazing for some of these families as it’s a meal the parents no longer had to provide and stress about. But now that we have distance learning in place kids spend most of their time at home and busy parents from low wealth households might not have the time or resources to provide three meals a day. Furthermore, the act of a child physically being in the classroom does wonder one can fully explain. At least from my experience as a student, I learn a lot better as an in-person student as my procrastination and laziness come out in full force when I’m an online student. But with the pandemic eliminating in-person classes as a possibility is forced to try and keep up utilizing technology they may not have or are unfamiliar with. This is a problem schools often have which is assuming its students are all coming from the same backgrounds and essentially have the same financial means. This is especially dangerous for those low wealth students as even if they found the motivation in the pandemic to keep up from home they may simply not be able to due to the requirements needed for distance learning. The problem with poverty in education is that often it’s a never-ending cycle when left unaddressed especially in regard to how funding is received for low-income schools. As referenced by the NAASP nearly every state has a division of funding for schools based on the property taxes accrued from the local area. But what causes it to be a never-ending cycle is that often times high poverty areas do not pay much in property taxes which means less money goes to schools and with less money schools are often worse which means people don’t want to live near them which makes property taxes go down even further.
