Essay on School Inequality: Always Just Black

Jobs today in the economy are still facing polarization and being precarious like it was around the mid-1900s. There are still many low-paying jobs that don’t require as much skill and knowledge which are mostly occupied by marginalized groups, and many people feel insecure about their jobs for a big reason. Technology advancement has greatly increased and it affects job markets by making technology-related majors more in demand as well as making it more competitive so not as many job occupations are being taken over by artificial intelligence and machines. Most people in the United States have had some sort of education and even now in the 21st century, education is the most common way for many students and adults to learn the material that they need or want and apply it in the labor market to find a job with the career they want. Marginalized groups of students are faced with obstacles such as racism and sexism from their teachers and unequal opportunities that try to deter them from completing their education, which can lead to them not getting enough education for high-paying jobs and cause more lower-paying jobs to be made for marginalized groups to fill the gap. Proposing and applying equal education and opportunity would make schools a better environment because there would be no segregation and all students could interact with each other and form friendships and connections. It could also be a possible solution to make jobs better for the future job markets by increasing rates of successful students completing their higher education and graduating from universities. The increase in college graduates will promote higher-paying jobs to be made while getting rid of lower-paying jobs to reduce polarization. Equal education can especially give marginalized students the opportunity to prove the skills that they learned in higher education and apply them in the job market to make jobs less precarious by being prepared with the skills they need for the job they want. All schools implementing equal education would solve the problem of inequality and discrimination in schools by giving all students equal opportunities in their education to help them fit in our economy and possibly make it boom once again.

Equal education will make all schools correspond to each other by making all classes available for all students of color to take without them being denied from taking the classes they want due to racism. According to Professor Dick Startz Brown Center Chalkboard from Brookings Institution, “Only 36 percent of high schools where the majority of students are black offer a calculus course. In contrast, 60 percent of majority-white schools offer calculus. It’s hard to see how this makes for equal opportunity.” This greatly hinders black students' chances of applying for STEM majors because most of them didn’t have an opportunity to learn the required math class so they are behind white students in progress during college. Technology-related jobs are in high demand and really competitive because of technological advances. Students of color who are behind in their education due to inaccessible courses could lose their chance to apply for tech companies or have it delayed while students are very likely to land a job which can cause the gap to be larger. The United States has been fighting for educational equality for a very long time and it is a solution to many economic problems if it is ever truly implemented. Andreas Schleicher and Pablo Zoido from the Journal of Social Issues state that “Providing equal opportunities for all, giving every student the same chances to succeed, creating the right conditions for all students regardless of socioeconomic background, gender, or origin, all of these are goals most governments aspire to.” and “Providing every student with basic skills and then exploring ways to go beyond the basics are critical goals for countries that want to participate in an increasingly globalized and interconnected world” ( Schleicher and Zoido 697). According to ProPublica’s database which is based on civil rights data from the U.S. Department of Education, the average of the nation’s white students are 80% more likely to be in an AP class compared to black students and it mostly involves the Southern States. Implementing equal opportunities would reduce the gaps between students of different skin colors and give them equal chance to learn and show others how intelligent they really are as well as debunk bad stereotypes about them. If the goal of equal education that most government wants is ever truly reached, the effect of equal education and opportunity is creating more highly educated students for the job markets to reduce polarized jobs by getting rid of low-class jobs and increasing middle and high-class jobs. The boost in the economy can benefit countries by greatly increasing the development of the country and technology, and this gives the government more reason to keep on pushing policies and laws to fight for equal education and a better future.

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Although students of color suffer most from education inequality, there is a certain group that faces education inequality as well but not due to racial discrimination. The group that also faces education inequality is females due to sexism. According to Batuhan Aydagül from the Istanbul-based quarterly magazine, Turkish Policy Quarterly, “Turkey’s progress towards gender equality in education has been limited, hindered by the overall gender gap in national politics and economics” (Aydagül 46-47). Also, Eva Iversen and Else Oestergaard from Forced Migration Review state that “Men are traditionally supposed to be breadwinners, while women are expected to become mothers and wives, and their education is therefore considered less important” (Iversen and Oestergaard 1). These two quotes from different sources show us the connection as to why females are facing sexism. Sexist views from society see men as the ones that are capable of doing everything while women are only seen as being able to do housework and take care of the family. This stereotype also connects to Kalleberg’s book, Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, by relating to his statement about how men are the only ones in their families going out to work to earn money to support their families while the wife is doing chores at home and taking care of the kids. This negative stereotype is spread worldwide so it gives the world a one-sided view about women not really needing education since they believe that they won’t even use the knowledge they acquired for society at all and stick with the housewife role. Equal education would give females the confidence and chance to attend school with equal opportunities and give them the education they need to prove to society that the negative stereotypes of females are totally wrong. It states in Turkish Policy Quarterly that the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) has “remarkable success in increasing gender parity in education was led by the girls’ education campaign launched in 2003. The campaign, which was developed in cooperation with and supported by UNICEF,7 was called Haydi Kızlar Okula (Hey Girls, Let’s Go to School) and claimed both national and international success in its design, implementation, and the national mobilization it sparked” (Aydagül 48). A campaign about female education is a good step to empower women for education because they know they are being backed up by other organizations while being funded as well as equalizing the gender parity ratio. Although the campaign probably won’t solve all problems related to gender inequality in education, it is still a solid effort to let people know that people care. The campaign started in the 10 provinces with the highest gender gap and it slowly spread until it took effect in all 81 provinces. It also states in Turkish Policy Quarterly that “As a result, the gender parity ratio for basic education increased from 0.9302 in 2003-04 to 0.9895 in 2008-09 and to 1 in 2012-13.” and “ In two projects launched in 2011 and 2015, both of which was funded by the European Commission, MoNE specifically focused on increasing girls’ access to school in the South and South East Anatolia provinces. The gender parity ratio at secondary education, which was as low as 0.8361 in 2003-04, jumped from 0.9651 in 2011-12 to 0.9955 in 2017-18”( Aydagül 48-49). Not only are the campaign and projects giving girls more chances to attend school for a better future, but it is also actually doing really well since it is getting more funding and support as well as showing positive results. Since good results are consistent, governments of poor and not as-developed countries as well as ones facing gender equality should try creating campaigns and projects. Not only will it encourage women to strive for higher education and give them a chance to contribute to the economy, but it will also help debunk bad stereotypes that affect their chances of being accepted for jobs and makes job less insecure for women. There is also a chance for it to change the vast majority of male politicians’ views of female education and get them to join the cause by establishing policies to help end gender inequality.

Teachers are the people who are supposed to teach and guide students because it is their job to share their knowledge but not all teachers are equal in how they do things in their classrooms. Teachers are the biggest issue because they are involved with the students the most in education, so if a teacher were to treat them poorly and discriminate in any kind of way then they are affecting the students negatively. Wrentham Julian wrote in The US Education System Fails Black Boys, “Data on disparities in discipline, access to high-level math and science courses, and availability of experienced teachers in the classroom has remained intractable. For example, Black students are twice as likely to be expelled without educational services than white children. Moreover, Black children are also twice as likely as white students to be disciplined by law enforcement.” Black students are more likely to stop pursuing education once they are expelled because they feel like it is the end and it will increase the amount of low-paying bad jobs for dropout students. The higher chances of them getting criminal track records from law enforcement could cause a lot of problems with future employers during an interview by giving them a bad image, and it increases the chances of them not being accepted for jobs due to their “bad reputation.” Black students are facing discrimination and are not given a chance to prove that they can succeed in higher education like STEM courses for example, which makes them less prepared for the job market today which requires knowledge of technology and science to find a good-paying job. Teachers are also more biased towards boys than girls which widens the gender gap even more. Joseph Cimpian from Brown Center Chalkboard stated from his studies with his colleague Sarah Lubienski, a professor of math education at Indian University-Bloomington, “Exploring deeper, we found that the beliefs that teachers have about student ability might contribute significantly to the gap. When faced with a boy and a girl of the same race and socio-economic status who performed equally well on math tests and whom the teacher rated equally well in behaving and engaging with school, the teacher rated the boy as more mathematically able—an alarming pattern that replicated in a separate data set collected over a decade later.” and “ teachers’ underrating of girls from kindergarten through third grade accounts for about half of the gender achievement gap growth in math.” The sexist views from teachers not only drop female students' confidence in their own abilities, but it could possibly lead to teachers neglecting their female students and hindering their learning by not helping them when they need it. The constant negligence could slow or completely halt their learning to the point where it becomes an obstacle to them in higher education because they are lacking the knowledge they need to help them with other classes. According to Julian, “The US teacher workforce is 80 percent white.” The solution to equal education would require schools to hire more teachers of color as well as train all teachers to not discriminate and be biased toward students. Julian states that teachers should immerse themselves in the community and foster learning environments to understand what burdens students can have to try to help them as well try to change school perspective to help students be themselves and let them recognize unconscious bias to connect with other students. The discrimination from their teachers can put an end to students of color’s chances ever finding a good-paying career in the future. We can fix the problem of discrimination by hiring more teachers of color who are less likely to show racial discrimination and more likely to motivate all students to push themselves to complete their education. The other solution to solve the issue with teachers are to train them better and let them interact more with the community, so they can properly help students whenever they need help without neglecting them and creating a gap between the teacher and student relationship. Experienced and good teachers help students push themselves to achieve greater things in the future.

Although equal education is a good solution to many problems, there is still a problem with money. According to The Atlantic, “Today, the U.S. spends more on college than almost any other country, according to the 2018 Education at a Glance report, released this week by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).” This means that education today alone costs so much for students in the U.S. that implementing equal education would require even more money to hire teachers of color as well as train all teachers. The cost of college is already so expensive and not all financial aid would pay off all the tuition, which causes many families to try to pay off the tuition for their children and possibly lead to financial burdens. According to Forbes, “Price Of College Increasing Almost 8 Times Faster Than Wages.” And according to The New York Times,” Growing inequality of income could become the last nail in public education’s coffin. It contributes to the residential segregation that cordons off rich school districts from the poor and reduces support for public education among the wealthy Americans who can opt-out. Not only is income barely increasing compared to college tuition, but there is also a gender and racial wage gap, which makes it even harder for marginalized groups to pay off their tuition and lead to more students being in higher amounts of debt. This could lead to students not wanting to go into higher education to obtain a degree and make jobs more polarized once again and hurt the economy. Although this is really risky, we have to take the risk to give more marginalized students a chance to go into higher education and earn a degree for the job market. If there are more educated people, it will help the economy greatly by reducing low-paying jobs and help the economy greatly.