Widening Education Gap Between Whites And Minorities: Who’s To Blame

By Susan Thompson on January 8, 2010, 8:08 am

According to a report by the National Center for Educational Statistics, 21.4% of Hispanics drop out of school compared to 5.3% of whites in 2007 and 8.4% of African Americans dropped out in 2007. The drop out rates for minorities is significantly higher than their white peers. Part of the issue comes from the class/race issue. Another study showed that white students make up 74.1 % of private school populations. Which means most minorities attend public school.

How Poverty Plays Into It

According to the Census Bureau, the 2000 census reported that 32.7% of African Americans and 29.9% of Hispanics fell below the poverty line. Only 12.9% of whites qualified as below the p0verty level. Since schools receive most of their funding from property taxes and revenue from retail taxes the communities with lower income residents will not have as much money for their school as a more affluent community. Since most of those living below the poverty line are minorities, 62.6%, then it would stand to reason that minorities do not receive equal educational opportunities in primary and secondary school as their white counter parts.

Where Did All The Teachers Go

No one really goes into teaching for the money and the really good ones go into it for the love of the profession and the genuine desire to make a difference. However, many teachers are swayed by the higher paying schools with all the bells an whistles because it makes their job easier. Chances are the grade point average of a student in an affluent community will be higher than one in an impoverished community.

 

This really doesn’t seem fair and it is another case for streamlining how taxes go to support school districts to attract higher quality teachers to needy schools. Real legislation needs to be passed regarding this issue.  Only then can we truly begin to close the educational gap and give children an equal opportunity in life.

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