To help lower
income schools struggling to provide basic resources to their
students, States should tax the rich. Taxing the rich by a slightly
increased amount to go towards education in public schools could help
substantially. For instance, this past year fifty-five percent of
California voters put into effect the Yes on 30 Campaign. The
campaign proposed increasing taxes on the rich. When voted into last
November, Yes on 30 is set to raise six billion dollars annually for
schools. This was able to be done because the California Federation
of Teachers was able to come together and pull support from
individual communities with the hopes to better fund and supply
California schools. Other States should follow in California's foot
steps and pass laws to better fund and accommodate low income
schools. This would provide schools with higher funding and the
ability to purchase crucial materials such as textbooks, for every
student.
State and city
governments would also so of increased support towards low-income
schools by offering rewards for those who do help or donate
resources. Along with increasing taxes on the wealthy States should
offer better rewards for those who do help poor schools. States
should consider “'Pay[ing] teachers more to work in places like the
Bronx...Pay college kids to tutor inner city children...You could
forgive their college loans to make it worth their while'”
(David,158). The student Kozol
interviews attends a high income school yet understands that students
in inner city schools need more resources from outside forces. As he
states, the government needs to motivate the outside help and make it
worth their while. Governments could help college graduates who are
trying to pay off their student loans, by agreeing to pay them off if
they help poor schools. If done correctly, it could create a
beneficial cycle of helping citizens, and those citizens helping
others under them.
Children
who do have materials feel worthy of their education because having
materials sends the message that many people believe that they will
make good use of those resources. Students in wealthier communities
who receive better funding feel worthy of what is being given to
them. An example being the kids living in Rye, New York who are able
to attend the local high school that is fully stocked with materials
and was able to raise $400,000 through parent support. When
interviewed by Kozol, the students mention that they do not believe
that the poor children would do well in their school. These students
claim that their success is due more to themselves than to what has
been provided for them. It is this type of confidence that students
in poor communities lack because many believe they are not worthy of
their education. The generous amounts of extra materials and
resources the students in Rye, New York have also give them a sense
of empowerment. Children quickly notice that they are getting more
than many other schools and feel a sense of power. However it is a
strange power these Rye kids have over other kids, such as in the
Bronx, who are the same age yet are at a much greater disadvantage.
As Kozol continues questioning the kids on what they could do to
improve inner city schools, high school student David mentions “'It
seems rather odd, that we were sitting in an AP class discussing
whether poor kids in the Bronx deserve to get an AP class. We are in
a powerful position.'” David is right in that the position he and
his fellow classmates are in is is extremely powerful because they
could determine the destinies of those inner city students. If enough
of students of Rye, New York got together and volunteered to
willingly give students in lower-funded schools some materials, or
donations, it could change the lives of the children in the Bronx
dramatically.
Lack of
materials in poorly funded public schools creates citizens with
feelings of little self-worth. These feelings begin in the classroom,
where students in poor schools observe they are not receiving all
they can. When students in struggling communities hear the
neighboring cities do not want to give them money, or that the more
fortunate do not want to donate to their schools, they jump to the
conclusion that they are not good enough. Kids begin to assume that
the reason nobody wants to donate money to them and provide them with
the resources they need is because they are not worthy of the things
most other kids in America have. The lack of materials and resources
sends them the message that there is no use in trying to educate them
because there is no hope, because there are not expected to do well.
In Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities, he
mentions a report by the Community Service Society in which an
official of the New York Board of Education notes that message the
poor funding sends “trickles down to districts, schools, and
classrooms” (121). Kozol explains that “Children hear and
understand this theme -they are poor investments- and behave
accordingly” (121). This theme that Kozol mentions kicks in to a
student's mentality to the point where they give up and stop
believing in themselves because nobody else does, causing this
students to grow into low-achieving citizens with low self-esteems
and little faith in themselves.
The
deficiency in resources in poorly funded public schools leads to
antsy and frustrated students. Author Jonathan Kozol gives the
example of the kids attending Irvington High School where students
share a gym being used as seven different classes, have no lockers,
and hardly ever get the change to shoot the basketball during
physical education. This constant requirement of students having to
share, and wait for a mere chance to do something as simple as
shooting a basketball creates very impatient citizens. Seemingly,
there is a correlation between the lack of textbooks and technology
in Oakland schools and the city's high crime rates. Kozol best
describes this as he writes, “the scarcity...creates the overheated
moods that also causes trouble in the streets. The students perspire.
They grow dirty and impatient. They dislike who they are and what
they have become” (192). This impatience students acquire leads to
outbursts and disturbances within their communities; the anger they
felt for their insufficient education is redirected and expressed to
an entire community.
Also
when students lack enough resources to see and learn new thing they
never learn things outside of their own communities. As James Paul
Gee describes in his discourse theory, people who only experience
small 'd' discourse only learn things from association and
experience, people who learn what they are exposed to. For many of
the kids in towns the author describes, such as East Harlem and
Camden, small 'd' discourse is mostly the only thing the are set up
to learn. When schools lack proper materials and textbooks and
technology that educate students on the world and on other types of
societies, it withholds a student's ability to acquire new knowledge.
James Paul describes big 'D' discourse as learned experiences such as
politics and speech. The likelihood for citizens in poor communities
to have these experiences are slim because they are not provided the
right tools to do so, and many will not try to seek it themselves. In
James Paul Gee's Social Linguistics and Literacies, he
explains that “Discourses are intimately related to the
distribution of social power and hierarchical structure in society”
(144). Gee means that the your big 'D' depends on where you are in
society, and is the determining factor in dividing social classes.
These lack of resources for students leads to inadequate
opportunities to learn big 'D' discourses creates citizens who do
not leave their communities and repeat the never ending cycle.
A
child who attends a decent school with enough materials and resources
has a better chance of acquiring more knowledge. Compared to children
in Camden, New Jersey, who do not have enough textbooks, the students
in cities such as Rye, New York are more certain to receive a better
education. All they resources and materials they have aids their
learning process where as the children in poor inner city schools
struggle to learn the minimum amount. Kids in poor school are not put
into a fair game compared to those in wealthier neighborhoods but
rather leave the children “'as [they] are, separate, and equal,
underfunded'”(Ruthie Green-Brown, 173). This inequality is what
divides kids among classes for the rest of their lives; they become
unequal and then uneducated. Kids in towns like Camden, New Jersey
begin with an disadvantage: the mere fact that they were raised where
they are. Kids in more adjusted towns have a greater advantage; they
have more of an opportunity to get ahead, with the right resources,
such as books and technology, they are better prepared for their
future than many if not all the kids in inner city schools.
Children
who have more resources have feelings of better self-worth and are
more prepared to achieve more in the future.. They feel the reason
they are being supplied with so much is because the deserve it when
in reality there is nothing they have done nothing that
differentiates them from kids in the poor communities; other than the
detrimental fact of where each child grew up. A teacher Jonathan
Kuzol interviews mentions how “'world is leaving us behind in
Camden,''' (177). Children in cities like Camden, are not destined to
failure but are also not give much of a change a success as the kids
in Rye, New York do. Kids in poor communities are not taught the same
skills as kids in suburban schools, they are trained to work they are
expected to do. However, the world does not only consist of poor
children, or just rich children, eventually both sides “'have got
to be around each other...you'll see all kinds of different people.
That's America. We have to live in the same world'” (Luis, 187).
The separation and barriers that the society puts around these two
groups of children eventually comes down, and they will have to face
one another. Poorly-funded schools are expected to put their students
in positions lower than most kids in urban areas.
Because
nobody wants to spend money on the students, they feel unworthy. The
students Kozol has spoken to all have seen what other school look
like, and they all understand what they are missing.When they see
these types of inequalities, most kids comes to the same assumption
that they are just not good enough. Kozol notes a report by the
Community Service Society explaining how children know people do not
want to spend money on their education because the think it would be
a waste and the children see the results of that in the classroom,
“Children hear and understand this theme-they are poor
investments-and behave accordingly” (120). When children know that
no one believes in them they stop believing in themselves. It can be
argued that the reason for the students' poor success is due to their
feelings of insecurity.They are aware that they have less than kids
at richer schools, but many do not understand why, so naturally they
blame themselves. They lose hope because no one has ever had any for
them and they stop trying.
