The education system
Introduction
The education system and school settings should offer quality education to all students without any discrimination. Besides, all schools and teachers are obliged to adequate resources necessary for their operations. Discrimination of minorities in American schools is an area of concern. Despite many measures that were implemented by former President, their still exists racial discrimination in these schools. The paper, therefore, addresses discrimination on minorities in a school setting and an advocacy plan.
Discrimination of minorities in a school setting
Minorities get exposed to high suspension and expulsion rates than their peers or White Americans. Schools should discipline each student without any discrimination. Minorities in these schools get suspended for any mistake compared to the whites. The rate of suspension and expulsion have increased among them, which have resulted to fewer minority graduates. Due to the high suspension rate, many lose focus on education. Besides, the high suspension rate relates to poor performance, which increases the rate of school dropout. The minorities are highly referred to Law enforcement authorities and receive high arrests on school grounds compared to the whites. According to the Civil Data Collection report released in 2018, black students constituted a small percentage of students in the schools in the U.S. Still, they represented a high percentage of suspension, expulsions, and referrals to Law authorities. Moreover, black students with disabilities also faced many suspension and arrests compared to whites.
Concerning the disciplinary issue, the prison pipeline is one area that has captured many of the black students in the US. Many minorities in public schools receive transitions to the juvenile justice system based on district policies like zero tolerance. These policies have been misused by schools to expel minorities. Evidence shows that a large percentage of children in juvenile systems are male African Americans.
A large percentage of black students can afford to attend public schools due to less income to support private schools. These public schools have many disadvantages. Students are exposed to less qualified teachers than white students in urban areas. These teachers are less certified in their areas of specialization, which contributes to poor performance. Subjects and units related to Mathematics, Sciences, and Engineering have less equipped teachers, which explains the low rate of professionalism among the blacks. According to the Department of Education’s latest report, many students in such public schools attain low grades than private schools. Besides, college have students graduating with low grades and qualifications. Only a small percentage of them graduate with qualifications in complex fields like medicine and engineering. It explains the low rate of employment among minorities due to fewer skills and expertise in their study areas.
The blacks’ teachers get low salaries than the whites’ teachers. Teachers in public schools concentrated with minority students receive low salaries than teachers in public schools with more white Americans. Regardless of the high population in the public schools, they receive low salaries compared to the whites in low populated schools. The low payment has led to an increase in turnover among black teachers. The low salaries also relate to poor performance as the teachers are not motivated enough to do extra and substantial work. According to the Employment and Labor Act, people of the same profession should have equal payment; therefore, the racial discrimination that exists is not equality.
The public schools, with the majority of the students being black, receive inadequate funds and resources than other schools. These schools are highly populated, and with the limited resources, they cannot satisfy all students’ educational needs. Districts with many schools attended by many Blacks receive 15% less per student than other districts with many schools attended by Whites. Despite the equality the districts adopt in the allocation of these resources among the public schools, it is not enough. Due to inadequate funds, they cannot afford excellent infrastructures like buildings, laboratories, computers, and stable Wifi. The fewer instructional materials they receive from the state hinder them from achieving excellent performance, which explains low performance in these public schools.
In segregated schools, where a large percentage of the population are White Americans, there exists a weak relationship between the teachers and Black students. The teachers fail to believe in the students’ outstanding capabilities and fail to encourage them for an excellent performance. Students need encouragement and positive attitudes from the teacher for an excellent performance. Besides, they need friendly teachers to help them in their school work and research. The discrimination has led to poor performance among Black students in such institutions. Due to this, many Blacks currently transfer to schools where most of the teachers are of their race to get support and avoid discrimination. Besides, the Board of Directors fails to attend to their interest and their parents. They are rarely included in school projects and developments.
Moreover, minorities are exposed to the low-quality curriculum as compared to White Americans. Most of these students are from low-income families, therefore, attend public schools. These schools depend on the state funds to boost their curriculum, like purchasing new learning materials. Unfortunately, the funds allocated to each student by the respective district cannot be adequate to adapt to the frequent changes in the education sector. Therefore, these students have to cope with the poor curriculum, which affects their performance. It explains the reason behind poor grades and fewer graduates in more complex fields like engineering among the Black students.
The Advocacy plan
Both the government, students, and teachers have a role they can play in advocating for equality in the education sector. The government can ensure an equal allocation of resources to all the American schools.
It can work closely with the Finance Department and Education Department to ensure that all public schools get equal resources by regularly auditing their reports. Most public schools with a high population of minorities or blacks receive inadequate funds per student from the federal government compared to schools with more white students. All public schools will have equal opportunity to develop suitable structures and employ qualified teachers through the equal allocation of resources.
Besides, the government can work with the Department of Labor to ensure all payments are aligned with the Labor and Employment Act. The Act states that people of the same profession should receive equal pay. It will ensure that all public teachers are paid the same salaries regardless of the schools’ location and the students they teach.
Through the districts, the Education Department can organize seminars and workshops to educate all teachers on cultural differences and discrimination. By educating them, they will have an opportunity to learn the effects and the measures to take. The teachers are the immediate parties who can influence students interact without racial discrimination.
Besides, the government can work with the Education Department to ensure that all public schools are allocated certified and well-equipped teachers in all the units and subjects. It can ensure that qualified teachers are allocated to specific subjects. The Department of Labor and Education can work together to ensure that teachers are allocated equally without racial discrimination. By doing so, schools will have both blacks and whites, which initiates interaction, reducing discrimination.
The government can also ensure that the Education Department allocates courses of interest to all students in their collages without racial discrimination. It can also frequently review the statistics to determine the equality of such allocation. Black Americans are often denied chances of studying professional and complex courses like medicine and engineering by allocating them to other courses. It will help in reinforcing equality in the job sectors through an equal opportunity for all. Through the Education Department, the government can also introduce an extensive study of discrimination in the curriculum. It is essential as it will help in creating awareness of the effects and solutions to discrimination. The curriculum will enable teachers and students to practice equality based on its content.
The government can also work with the Office of Civil Rights to reinforce people’s rights against discrimination. The office can create awareness by educating the public and the schools through media and seminars. The department can also develop new discrimination Laws and policies specific to schools to help eliminate discrimination. The department can also illustrate the actions taken against any student, school, or teacher with discrimination offenses.
Moreover, the students and the teachers also have an obligation they can play in advocating for equality in schools. The first action that teachers can take is creating self-awareness and self-reflection on discrimination. They can introduce discussions, debates, and invite professionals to educate the students on the effects and solutions to discrimination. By sharing ideas and knowledge, the students can learn and appreciate the cultural difference among them. Also, by influencing peer pressures, the students will be able to interact and influence each other on equality. The teachers can emphasize group discussions and group works consisting of both blacks and white. By interacting and changing ideas, the students can value each other and accept cultural differences. The school administration can also ensure that teachers involve all students’ equally in their classwork and consultations. It can come up with policies and rules against discrimination and introduce suggestion boxes to enable students to report discrimination cases. Appropriate action should then be taken on such teachers.
The school Board of Directors can also enforce equality in the disciplinary committee by ensuring that they also attend the disciplinary meetings. Besides, they can also ensure that the disciplinary committee comprises of both the blacks and white teachers to reduce discrimination. The Board of Directors can also come up with disciplinary policies and rules; for example, they can state the grounds for suspension and expulsion. The Education Department can ensure that the Board of Directors constitutes both blacks and white. The committee often dismisses the black students’ concerns and their parents in cases where the majority are whites. Besides, the schools can set strict rules on discrimination and actions to be taken on any student of such offense.