Education is essential to progress via which individuals gain the skills and knowledge needed to acquire good jobs and prosper in their future. However, education in the United States continues to be unequal. Compare to the American education in the 1900 and the current one, there are significant differences. One of the most significant improvements is a tremendous reduction in racial discrimination in the US education system. Lawful segregation in American schools was declared illegal and was formally abolished. Besides, the racist curriculum was abolished, and racial differences in educational attainment between minority and majority groups in the US have narrowed significantly. However, despite these important improvements, inequalities in the education sector still exist. Most students from minority groups, immigrants, and the economically deprived drop out of school have fewer education certificates and demonstrate lower educational skills. The problem is attributed to factors such as race, availability of resources, economic background, and policies.
Working Thesis
Inequalities (DV) in the US education system continue to persist despite interventions to eliminate them due to a lack of government policies (IV) that focus directly on inequalities.
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Main Points
Education inequalities in the US have reduced significantly.
More students from ethnic and racial minority groups as well as the economically disadvantaged, have access to education ( Gamoran, 2015 ). Explicit segregation was banned from promoting education access for all.
Causes of racial inequalities in the US education system include socioeconomic factors, genetics, schooling quality, and culture, gender, and government policies (Gamoran, 2001) .
Most racial minority groups are economically disadvantaged. As a result, they are unable to afford higher education. Besides, their schools lack essential educational resources compared to most other schools attended by children from privileged groups.
The primary cause of the failure of efforts to eliminate education inequality in the US is inadequate funding from the federal government to public schools ( Kaestle, 2016) .
Ninety percent of funding for elementary schools is given by local and state governments, which comes from income taxes and sales.
Federal government policies change the only effective means to address education inequality.
The federal government should formulate policies to allow more funding for public schools, equal distribution of funds and resources, ensure better pay for public school teachers, and provide more financial support to at-risk learning institutions and districts ( Darling-Hammond, 2013) .
References
Darling-Hammond, L. (2013). Inequality and school Resources: What it will take to close the opportunity gap. Closing the Opportunity Gap , 77-97. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199982981.003.0006
Gamoran, A. (2001). American schooling and educational inequality: A forecast for the 21st century. Sociology of Education , 74 , 135. https://doi.org/10.2307/2673258
Gamoran, A. (2015). The Future of Educational Inequality in the United States: What Went Wrong, and How Can We Fix It? William T. Grant Foundation | Supporting Research Since 1938. https://wtgrantfoundation.org/library/uploads/2015/11/The-Future-of-Educational-Inequality-Adam-Gamoran.pdf
Kaestle, C. (2016). Federalism and inequality in education: What can history tell us? The Dynamics of Opportunity in America , 35-96. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25991-8_3
