COURSE: RPW: Race, Gender, and Poverty Proposal Assignment: I'm thinking to choose The Effects of Poverty on Child care. I will be attaching a sample of this work so that you will get an idea of the s
FINAL REPORT: THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION 2 Abstract This paper examines the relationship between poverty and education in the United States. The history of poverty in this country is discussed to give an adequate background of how we got to the place we are now. This includes the various legislative actions that created the landscape of poverty, and by default, a broken educational system. Furthermore, the influence that family history and poor nutrition have on education is discussed. A mention of past attempts at solutions reveals that policies such as aff irmative action and No Child Left Behind fell short of fixing the educational system. Finally, new recommendations are proposed that may help alleviate the effects of poverty on education, and move us towards a place where all people have the same learning opportunities. These recommendations include reforms on how education is funded by the government, and how large corporations could potentially aid in this effort. This requires the continued societal shift towards a collective mentality where all people are considered worth the invaluable investment that is education. Keywords: poverty, education, legislative reform, racial injustice, United States FINAL REPORT: THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION 3 The Effects of Poverty on Education Poverty often has negative effects on areas of life such as education, healthcare, and employment. In America, the face of pov erty is represented disproportionately by the minority groups which inhabit the inner cities that have been decimated by the migration of wealth to the suburbs. The first victims of this exodus of prosperity were the schools, which are the first line of de fense against the cycle of poverty. In the United States, the entire system of education is negatively impacted by the prevalence of poverty. Background Poverty has been a reality in America since its founding over 200 years ago; some people have always h ad more wealth than others. This reality took on a new meaning when legislation began to influence who would be more likely to thrive, and who would be left out of a chance for success. The New Deal legislation included the National Housing Act of 1934, wh ich established the systematic practice of redlining. This act established the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), which placed neighborhoods into one of four categories, based on the assumed risk of insuring mortgages in that area. According to Domonsok e (2016) “Neighborhoods with minority occupants were marked in red (hence ‘redlining’) and considered high - risk for mortgage lenders”. This meant that minorities in these areas where unable to obtain mortgages that would put them on the path to homeownersh ip and establishing generational wealth. Furthermore, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) was providing subsidies for the building of neighborhoods for those effected by the Great Depression “with the requirement that none of the homes be sold to African - A mericans" (Gross, 2017). Combined, these actions greatly contributed to the concentration of poverty in minority groups and certain areas. FINAL REPORT: THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION 4 Beyond housing discrimination, minorities were also historically subjected to employment inequities which contributed to the systematic establishment of poverty for this group. Jones (2000) laments how African American’s were particularly discriminated aga inst: “Throughout the late nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, blacks as a group were barred from machine work within the industrial sector, and from white - collar clerical and service work”. The well - paying jobs that offered long - term financial stability were not an option for certain groups, and instead they were destined for a life of poverty. Like housing discrimination, this inability to become skilled laborers meant that minorities couldn’t get their foot in the door for positions that offe red the opportunity for advancement. To address discrimination, legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 had sections which established equal employment opportunities and barred housing discrimination, respectively . However, the damage was largely already done; the inequality had become so baked into American society that the perpetual cycle of poverty could not be stopped. The residual effects can still be seen today, with impoverished groups still feeling the effe cts in various aspects of everyday life. Poverty and Education Understanding how institutional and government action caused the poverty landscape that remains today is only the beginning. In order to create change it is important to recognize the outcomes of the poverty cycle. One critical result of low socioeconomic status (SES) is a decrease in the quality of education, which can lead to lifelong repercussions for the affected individuals. Segregation of Schools It is common knowledge that most funding for a public school comes from local property taxes. This means that areas ravaged by poverty have less funding for education, and therefore, FINAL REPORT: THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION 5 a lower quality of schooling. The Coleman Report, which was commissioned by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the 1960s, was a landmark study that first shone a light on the educational landscape. Coleman (1966) revealed that at the time greater than 65% of African Americans in northern states attended a grade school that was 90 - 100% black in makeup (p. 3). In the south, almost 100% of African Americans attended all black schools. With this segregation came a difference in quality of education; schools with a majority population of African Amer ican were less likely to be accredited, had more students per teacher, and had inadequate curricula, on top of using rundown facilities (Coleman, 1966, pp. 9 - 11). This situation meant that poor minorities were less likely to have access to a quality educat ion that would set them up for a successful future. During the 1970s, forced busing legislation attempted to remedy the educational segregation. The outcome was not as successful as was hoped for, with many white families choosing to relocate to the suburb s, which ensured that de facto segregation would continue (Casey, 2019). Fast forward to more recent times, and it becomes apparent that this school separation has become about more than just skin color: “In 2005 the average black or Latino student attende d a school in which 60% of students were poor; the average white student attended a school in which only one - third of students were poor” (Reardon & Owens, 2014). Now we are seeing an added separation based on SES; Minorities on average attend schools in p oorer areas, where their classmates share the same lower SES. Family History We are a product of our environment; how a person is raised and the influences early in life play a large role in how education will affect them. Families with a history of pover ty are more likely to have kids that have low academic achievement, compared to families that live above the poverty line (Datcher - Loury, 1989). This is because impoverished families are less likely to place an emphasis on education, probably because survi ving day - to - day takes priority. FINAL REPORT: THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION 6 Furthermore, the resources and quality of educational staff is severely diminished in urban areas where poverty is concentrated. Beyond just secondary education, a family history of low SES also effects the pup il's further education. A study by Finnie and Mueller (2008) concluded that “Family background appears to have an enduring effect on the determination of who goes on to post - secondary participation, even among what appear to be equally qualified, and perha ps even equally motivated young people”; children from families that earn above $100,000 are 20% more likely to attend university compared to their low - income cohorts. Even if a student works extremely hard to overcome the disadvantages of having a family that lives in poverty, they are far less likely to go on to post - secondary education, compared to their middle - class counterpart. Now that it has been established that low SES decreases the likelihood of a student going on to post - secondary education, how does this finding help explain the generational cycle of poverty that can be observed in urban America? Well, the cycle of poverty has an observable counterpart: the cycle of the highly educated. Finnie and Mueller (2008) lament that “Having a parent with a bachelor’s degree increases the probability of going to university by 31.2 percentage points, compared to someone from a family with high school as the highest level of parental education”. In a manner of speaking, education and wealth tend to perpetuate themselves; as does poverty. Poor Nutrition Poverty also impacts education in ways that are less direct than economic segregation and family history. The quality and quantity of food a person consumes is influenced by their SES, which in turn affects their education. Furthermore, the food that is the cheapest to obtain is often of low nutritional value. For example, traditional “junk foods” commonly contain high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which have been linked to decreases in academic FINAL REPORT: THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION 7 performance (Almaas et al., 2015). Similarly, students who consume an insufficient amount of food where foun d to have decreased math and reading scores (Rausch, 2013). Children who live in urban areas are less likely to have access to fresh produce and are more likely to consume foods that are highly process. The poor nutrition of those in poverty has an observa ble effect on their educational outcome. Past Attempts at Solutions Beginning in the 1960s, attempts at education reform sought to alleviate the effects of poverty on education. This was a time when it was thought that a growing government would be able to strong hand the change that was needed to move education forward. A ffirmative Action Affirmative action is the practice of providing some favor to those groups of people who have traditionally seen discrimination (Fullinwider, 2018). This originally began as an attempt to enforce the recently passed Civil Rights Act of 1964 in institutions of education, before quickly devolving into controversy. The major criticism of the policy was that it “undermines its intended beneficiaries by promoting the stereotype that those who benefit from the policy could not succeed on their own” (Crosby, 2006, p. 593). This created a further stigma for a group of people who were already receiving the short end of the stick. Affirmative action is a bandage that attempts to solve the problem without addressing the underlying issues: the history of racism, discrim ination and segregation in America impoverished entire groups of people, ultimately affecting their educational outcomes. America needed to confront this marred past head on, and not try to force representation of the victimized group into a society that l argely fails to see how this socioeconomic divide began. FINAL REPORT: THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION 8 No Child Left Behind The first meaningful attempt to reduce the economic disparities in academic achievement was the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. The act sought to hold schools accountable for how well their students achieved, even going so far as to levy sanctions against institutions that failed to meet r equirements (Turner, 2015). The high - poverty schools were found to have the lowest test scores to begin with and were more likely to miss adequate yearly progress (AYP) requirements (Kim & Sunderman, 2005, p. 5). Failing to meet AYP in consecutive years can lead to various consequences, with perhaps the most devastating being that the institution must allow students to transfer to other schools in the district. This further segregates students by SES, race, and test scores. Furthermore, the schools that see an exodus of high achieving students are losing their potentially positive role models. Summarized best by Kim and Sunder (2005): The accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 pla ce high - poverty schools and racially diverse schools at a disadvantage because they rely on mean proficiency scores and require all subgroups to meet the same goals for accountability. (p. 10) Recommendations When examining the situation as a whole, it is clear that poverty has a negative impact on education in the United States. Working this problem backwards, it stands to reason that education reform is the best way to combat the issue of poverty. Education F unding Reform Currently, most of the funding for public schools comes from the collection of local property taxes (Turner et al., 2016). This means that schools located in wealthy areas with high property values naturally obtain more funding than their im poverished counterparts. In other words, the schools that need the most help, receive the least money. A solution is to restructure FINAL REPORT: THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION 9 this funding system so that areas with higher tax revenues can redistribute some of their collected money to schools in areas with lower tax revenues. However, this idea generates a lot of pus h back because people don’t want to see their hard - earned money shipped off to an area where they have no vested interest. This is unavoidable and requires a shift towards a common good mindset. To alleviate some of this, one school could be paired with an other school in their state, as a sort of sister schools' relationship. One of the schools could be from a traditionally well - off area, while the other is from a location more in need. The sister schools could then balance out their funding so that they bo th receive more equal amounts. Given enough time, the increase in the quality of education will transform the impoverished area into a high - performing district, and there will be no need to redistribute funds between them going forward. As things currentl y stand, only about 8% of the total funding for public schools comes from the federal government, with the rest coming from the state and local level (Nelson & Gazley, 2014). The federal government should increase their role in the funding of public school s. Although social services, such as government benefits, are vital in the short term, they are not a long - term solution because they do nothing to fix the root problem: unequal education. By putting more federal funding into education, the need for vast s ocial services can potentially subside; people with a sound education as children, are less likely to require government benefits as adults (Turner et al., 2016). Nongovernment organizations (NGOs) are nonprofit institution that seek to bring about positiv e societal change, such as ending poverty and improving education (Turner et al., 2017). Currently, the concept of major corporations also contributing to this war on poverty is limited; it is more common for private corporations to establish grants that b enefit those who attend institutions of higher education, such as colleges and universities (Turner et al., 2017). A push should be made to provide incentives for large corporations to also help fund grade - school education. The most obvious incentive is so me form of tax break. However, corporations should FINAL REPORT: THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION 10 have a bigger picture outlook on the situation: it seems obvious that people who live in poverty are less likely to buy their goods and services, because they simply can’t afford them. Education is closely linked to poverty, so by helping to provide funding for public schools, the corporations would be helping their bottom line down the road. Conclusion Poverty has a negative impact on education, and the source of th is poverty can be traced back to America’s history of economic racisms towards minority groups. This poverty has created an unending cycle where those families who start poor and uneducated are destined to remain that way from generation to generation. Pas t attempts at solutions, such as affirmative action and NCLB, have only provided a bandage to the situation, without fixing the core issues.Moving forward, reforms to the way education is funded will be key to alleviate these disparities.
This includes re distributing the property tax funding, increasing the federal government's role in funding, and encouraging private corporations to help fund grade school education. On the individual level, each citizen should desire to help lift the impoverished out of t heir cycle of despair. It is a team effort, and we are all a part of that team. FINAL REPORT: THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION 11 References Almaas, A. N., Tamnes, C. K., Nakstad, B., Henriksen, C., Walhovd, K. B., Fjell, A. M., … Iversen, P. O. (2015). Long - chain polyunsaturated fatty acids and cognition in VLBW infants at 8 years: an RCT. Pediatrics, 135(6), 972 – 980. https://org.doi/10.1542/peds.2014 - 4094 Casey, L. (2019, July 16). It was never about the buses: personal and political reflections on "forced busing". Retrieved from https://www.shankerinstitute.org/blog/it - was - never - about - buses Coleman, J. S. (1966). Equality of educational opportunity . W ashington: U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education. Crosby, F. J., Iyer, A., & Sincharoen, S. (2006). Understanding affirmative action. Annual Review of Psychology, 57(1), 585 – 611. https://org.doi/10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190029 Datcher - Loury, L. (1989). Family background and school achievement among Low Income Blacks. The Journal of Human Resources, 24(3), 528 – 540. https://doi.org/10.2307/145826 Domonoske, C. (2016, October 19). Interactive redlining map zooms in on America's history of discrimination. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo - way/2016/10/19/498536077/interactive - redlining - map - zooms - in - on - americas - history - of - discrimination Finnie, R., & Mueller, R. E. (2008). The effects of family income, parental education and other background factors on access to post ‐ secondary education in Canada: Evidence from the YITS. SSRN Electronic Journal . https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2256114 FINAL REPORT: THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION 12 Fullinwider, R. (2018, April 9). Affirmative action. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/affirmative - action/ Gross, T. (2017, May 3). A ' forgotten history' of how the U.S. government segregated America. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a - forgott en - history - of - how - the - u - s - government - segregated - america Jones, J. (2000, November 30). Black workers remember. Retrieved from https://prospect.org/features/black - workers - remember/ Kim, J. S., & Sunderman, G. L. (2005). Measuring academic proficiency under the No Child Left Behind Act: Implications for education al equity. Educational Researcher, 34(8), 3 – 13. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x034008003 Nelson, A. A., & Gazley, B. (2014). The rise of school - supporting nonprofits. Education Finance and Polic y, 9(4), 541 – 566. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00146 Rausch, R. (2013). Nutrition and academic performance in school - age children the relation to obesity and food insufficiency. Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences, 03(02), 257 - 260 . https://doi.org /10.4172/2155 - 9600.1000190 Reardon, S. F., & Owens, A. (2014, August 1). 60 years after Brown: Trends and consequences of school segregation. Retrieved from https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/60 - years - after - brown - trends - and - consequences - school - segregation Turner, C. (2015, October 27). No child left behind: what worked, what didn't. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/10/27/443110755/no - child - left - behind - what - worked - what - didnt Turner, C., Guerra, J., Zeff, S., McGee, K., Schrank, A., Brundin, J., … Boger, P. (2017, May 1). Is there a better way to pay for America's schools? Retrieved from
