The public and private US education system is not effective in eradicating ethnic and class related issues and more marginalized groups still lack equal chances compared to their White counterparts. This essay will appropriately define the purposes of public education in the US in connection to democracy and the possibility of achieving equality as far as the issues of class and race are concerned. The paper will also explain how the curriculum should incorporate some of the harsh aspects of the American history. The public education system in the US is required to serve all citizens and give them equal and fair chances to acquire knowledge from the institutions. Public elementary and secondary education was put in place to help young children develop their minds and characters and enable them grow up to become competent, healthy, and knowledgeable citizens. Many people think that public education is broken in the US and it has failed to meet the standard scores as is expected. According to Ravitch (2013), however, the public education is not broken but rather the diagnosis and solutions provided by corporate reformers are wrong. As a democratic nation, the education system is expected to provide a full curriculum, rich programs in arts, experienced staff, and well-maintained institutions to students from every social class and ethnic groups. Making the public education system in the US private has not made any remarkable contribution in addressing ethnic and class-based inequalities but has rather elevated it. Privatization of the education system mainly focuses on profit-making rather than addressing the problem of ethnicity and class and its adoption has since resulted to the segregation of schools and communities (Ravitch, 2013). More schools and communities have been dissolved due to the privatization of education as students and families tend to fit themselves into institutions that best reflect their ethnicity, class, and race. The need to gain profits and cut costs should not surpass the need to provide dependable, reliable, and equal education opportunities to every student despite their class or ethnicity. More policies and reforms are needed to make the private education system beneficial to all Americans and reduce ethic and class related issues. More Americans, however, can acquire equal education opportunities despite of their race or ethnicity if proper reforms are laid down and properly implemented. Schools should prioritize their interests to best match that of their students rather than the state (Educational Courage, 2012). Marginalized students need to be recognized by the education system and this can be done through the creation of specific departments within learning institutions that can deal with it. For instance, the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) has a working Mexican/American Department which serves to address academic and educational needs of its Chicana community in the entire Tucson through a number of ways like availing ethnic studies. Institutions can use critical and cultural literacy to give their ethnic students high-quality academic experience instead of overly relying on standardized test scores as a measure of quality education experience. Implementing ethnic studies in classes can help foster ethnic identity among marginalized students and can help them easily relate with the concepts. According to Meza (2013), students who participated in ethnic studies in TUSD significantly improved on standard tests, graduated, and went to college in higher numbers than before. White students can also acquire deeper knowledge and understanding of the history and cultures of other ethnic groups. The American education curriculum has been controversial mainly because it has intentionally omitted a number of harsh aspects from its history and most students remain ignorant about some of the important aspects of their history. Many institutions do not properly teach their students about important historical aspects while others misinform their students through the selected text books which vary from state to state. As much as the curriculum hides the ugly sides of US history like slavery, it should at least recognize its strong and lasting effects rather than providing misleading information. According to research conducted on US history books and social studies teachers, a third of the students were illiterate on slavery matters as they thought the practice was ended by the Emancipation Proclamation rather than the 13th Amendment. It is the duty of the US education system to appropriately enlighten their students by providing all the necessary information about their nation’s past including their founding fathers. This will grant them the opportunity to pass their judgment. For a nation to move on from the horrors and mistakes of the past and avoid them in future, it is necessary to deal with them. It is unfortunate that many black children are misinformed about their history and they only get to know the true stories while at home. The American curriculum should cover history holistically without discrimination. This is because even the marginalized communities have an equal right to know their origin.
Conclusion
The education system in the US is still characterized by unequal distribution of resources and ethnic/class issues. Reforms made to public education are failing while the private sector focuses on profit-making and cutting costs rather than the best interests of the students. The curriculum, on the other hand, is not reliable as it has intentionally omitted important aspects in history especially those concerning slavery.
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References
Ravitch, D. (2013). Reign of Error. NY: A. Knopf. Schniedewin, N, & Sapon-Shevin, M. (2012). Educational Courage:Resisting The Ambush of Public Education. Boston: Bacon Press 978-0-8070-3295-4 Meza, C. (2014). Precious Knowledge: An Interview with Film Director, Ari Palos, on April, 2013. Journal of Education Controversy. Vol. 8
