According to information posted by Brookings.edu, the mentality that education equals equality is not a reality. The data shows that education disparities aren’t getting better for poor people or minorities.
Brookings reports that “big gaps” remain for improving high school graduation rates for minorities and those considered poor.
The study also notes many low-income individuals are staying away from enrolling in college due to “tuition and debt worries.”
It is the failures of the American education system that highlight how far away we remain from some form of economic equality for those in the colorful minorities. Black and brown students are often outpaced by their white counterparts not due to a lack of trying or intelligence, it is the brevity of resources available to those students that prove to be an identifier as to why some educational numbers for minorities are so low.
Is the education equals equality mentality valid at all?
But the article isn’t totally a summation of negativity. Brookings presents solutions that may help to solve the growing problems in education in America.
For instance, one suggestion is that “there needs to be more flexibility in budgets at all levels of government to allow education innovations to be explored and services to be customized for students.”
Generally state legislators do not look kindly upon education budgets when cutbacks loom.
Another piece of guidance is to give parents and students more access to data to properly track school performance, offers, and to help track student progress as well.
In essence, there needs to be a more stringent focus on helping students who lag behind due to inefficiencies in our education system. Through no fault of their own, many students have fallen behind because of our collective nature to form monoliths around past successes.
Minority students and those from low-income families deserve our full attention, and if they do not receive it, our educational system will continue to fall farther behind other nations.
