A strong education system benefits everyone.
Every child deserves a high-quality education. Unfortunately, not all educations are created equally. Inequality in a variety of different spheres plagues the education system in the U.S., giving different students varying levels of quality.
Understanding Inequalities
What contributes to the quality of a student’s education? According to the Economic Policy Institute, social class is one of the most significant predictors of a student’s academic success. Children who come from wealthier backgrounds have access to more educational resources and opportunities from an early age. From attending elite preschools to paying for expensive SAT preparation courses, students from wealthy families have access to more resources. If they are having trouble in school, their families can afford to hire a private tutor or send them to an alternative private school. These are opportunities that every student deserves but are unfortunately usually only afforded to students who come from wealth. Unsurprisingly, these trends are similar for students of color; Black students are underrepresented in Advanced Placement courses and often attend under-resourced schools. Systemic inequalities like class and race seep their way into many systems, and education is no exception.
Many inequalities students face can be attributed to school funding. Public schools are chronically underfunded. Teachers are paid far less than they should be. The average salary for a Portland Public Schools (PPS) teacher sits around $60,000 a year, yet a recent study found that $74,088 a year is what is required to live comfortably in Portland. In 2023, PPS teachers went on strike to demand higher salaries. After three weeks and 11 days of cancelled school, the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) successfully got a new contract that will go into effect over the next three years. Teachers will make more money for taking on larger class sizes, which is good – but it doesn’t address the issues students face when put into large classes. Experts say large class sizes are generally understood to be less effective learning environments. PAT first wanted class size caps but settled for overage bonuses for teachers with classes containing more than the target number of students. Teachers will also be receiving raises and more planning time, implemented over the next three years. While these changes are certainly improvements, PAT had to negotiate and pare down their initial demands.
People often become teachers because they have a passion for students and education, but this passion can also lead to their exploitation. In the book The Trouble with Passion, Erin A. Cech writes that “passion-seeking among career aspirants is often accompanied by a willingness—even expectation—to trade higher salaries and job security for work they ‘love.’” In other words, the desire to do good can cause teachers to accept a lower salary than they deserve. School districts know that they can get away with this because once someone has dedicated their life to teaching through the accumulation of degrees and applying for positions, they are unlikely to give that up because of a lower salary. Unfortunately, this can also lead to burn out. Teachers are known to go above and beyond for their students, often using their own money to buy classroom supplies and support their students. Some teachers have opted to utilize public Amazon wish lists to stock their classrooms. How can we expect students to thrive when society doesn’t place a high enough value on their educators? The first step to improving education is to unwaveringly support our educators.
School-to-Prison Pipeline
Schools are the setting for children to experience socialization. What happens there is definitive in how kids perceive the world around them and their role in it. Though Portland eliminated cops in schools after the 2020 protests, schools around the country employ armed officers. Many schools, particularly in urban areas with more students of color, require students to go through security checkpoints before entering. This is an example of the school-to-prison pipeline, which refers to the ways that schools can introduce students to the carceral system. Security checkpoints and armed guards, as well as certain disciplinary policies, mimic the carceral system. Suspending students, for example, takes them out of school and can cause them to fall behind in their classes. This normalizes students interacting with the criminal justice system before they are adults, and disproportionately impacts students of color and students with disabilities.
A New York City study found that students of color, disabled students, and poor students were more likely to face disciplinary action than their white peers. This was not just due to student behavior but also to implicit biases held by school staff. Furthermore, students who had been previously suspended were more likely to be arrested in the future. Schools should be places where students feel safe to learn, grow, make mistakes, and feel safe. Conditioning students to interact with a racist and exploitative carceral system is antithetical to everything schools aim to achieve.
The school-to-military pipeline is another insidious system that harms students. PPS is currently considering adding a JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program. This is happening concurrently with enormous budget cuts – PPS is facing $30 million in budget cuts and is letting go of staff members. Military recruitment in schools is common, with low-income high schoolers the most common targets. Under section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools can lose federal funding if they do not allow military recruiters access to students and their private information. Joining the military promises a way out of poverty: free college, skill building, and guaranteed employment. However, joining the service can often be a traumatic and violent experience that promotes American imperialism. Service members also experience a new kind of socialization, where they are fashioned into individuals who conform to the norms of their new environment. Coercing students into this environment with promises of financial security is not the way to help students. It promotes conformity and patriotism rather than individuality, creativity, and self-expression. School districts should not be pouring their precious funding into JROTC programs. Instead, public school districts should be paying teachers adequate wages, funding creative arts programs, hiring social workers and counselors, reducing class sizes, adding vocational programs as well as preparing students for college.
The Future of Education
In the wake of another presidential election, education is something that must be considered. President Trump’s previous Secretary of Education, Besty DeVos, had many troubling policy positions, including supporting school choice and school vouchers. School choice refers to the allotment of public funds to access schools beyond public options. Nationally, billions of dollars are funneled into voucher programs every year. For example, vouchers can be given to low-income families, allowing their kids to attend private schools as opposed to their local public schools. However, private schools, unlike their public counterparts, can reject students, leading to discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, disability, religion, and more. Furthermore, it is not always low-income students switching from public to private schools with vouchers: a recent report out of Indiana shows that 67.5% of students using vouchers in the state had no prior record of attendance at public schools in Indiana. Conservatives favor school choice because it allows them to funnel public funds to private, religious schools instead of diverse public schools. Further, right-wing school choice advocates are fueled by the parent’s rights movement, which has concerns about diversity and curriculum in public schools.
Education is a public good and should be treated as such. Inequality in education can only be solved through robust funding and support for our public schools. Ensuring that educators and faculty have the resources they need to maintain high-quality education for all students is vital. Let the focus be on learning, not discipline. Support teachers in their fight for better schools.