Author's Note: This blog is part of a two-part series about economic disparities and its disproportionate effects on communities of color. Part two will be provided in a link at the bottom of this page once posted. I hope you enjoy it.
Your child’s future is being robbed by an unjust academic system with an inherent bias towards higher-income students with more access offered to some form of academic help.
While this conversation being started could be taken in many different directions, the focus should be on the lack of equity within our funding towards children within school districts. Although funding is a tricky concept to understand one-hundred percent of the time, there are a few simple and moral lines that I believe we can find common ground on. Before I get into these moral lines that we tend to balance on, I need to explain a little bit about how the economic disparity within our school districts can affect a child’s future more than you might suspect.
Equity is simply the idea of giving specific groups help based on their need. To put it in simpler terms, say you and I are having a race, but I start the race 20 yards in front of you. In order for the race to be fair in the first place, the race commissioner might offer you a two-second head start in order to make it to that 20-yard line. This act represents the simplicity of equity. You were in need of a little bit of support in order to become equal with me. Not ahead nor a free win ticket, but support. Equity is not something we should shy away from. Equity makes more sense than equality. Equality assumes that multiple parties within a situation have the same access or opportunities. Sadly, we do not live in this so-called Utopia. Equity helps based upon need.
With this short lesson on equity, let us apply this knowledge to our education system. School districts receive money based on high test scores. The problem with this tactic and system in place is that lower-income students will have a way harder time trying to grow academically. This starts with the idea of academic support. An SAT tutor can be anywhere from 45-100 dollars per hour. A family with more economic stability can easily allow their kid this help from someone who has mastered the SAT. Because of this extra support from their economic well-being, that kid will be able to get a higher score. A higher SAT score means maybe potential access to college scholarships and potential higher acceptance rates into colleges. In lower-income areas or school districts, these kids do not get that same chance for extra help and support to succeed. Money in this world does offer a lot of pathways to success.
The problem I am specifically trying to highlight here is my confusion towards the supplying of schools with better test scores instead of schools with low test scores that are struggling to grow. Schools with test scores that are worse, more likely with a higher percentage of low-income students, should in theory get more funding. If funding took on the role of equity, then, in order for all kids to gain the same type of educational and academic support, then schools with lower test scores should be offered more tutors, academic programs, or even grants.
A future of a child can be ruined by not being given enough chances to thrive and survive. Money is a gateway opener. For those who do not have the economic support always, our school districts should be offering a helping hand to those kids in order for them to stand at the same position as those with a higher economic status. This is because equity focuses on helping based on need. This does not mean supporting people more than the other, just helping make the starting position more fair and equal for all students. Kids these days should not have to be fighting for more equality-based education systems. Every kid deserves a chance to show who they are without a limit being placed because of their economic well-being.
Image Source: https://www.berkeleycitycollege.edu/wp/sea/