What are your thoughts after reading this Op-ed? After looking at these charts? What is Ravitch’s topic, main idea, and major supporting details? Is there a connection to the spending charts? What does this say about our priorities?
What’s Your Zip Code? Why Poverty Matters in Public Education
Our society has not taxed itself to make sure that all kids have great schools.
If only it were true that a child raised in an impoverished home had the same life chances as children brought up in affluent homes, where food, medical care, and personal security are never in doubt. (Photo: Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)
From the earliest days of corporate reform, which is now generally recognized to have been a failed effort to “reform” schools by privatizing them and by making standardized testing the focal point of education, we heard again and again that a child’s zip code should not be his or her destiny. Sometimes, in the evolving debates, I got the sense that some people thought that zip codes themselves were a problem. If only we eliminated zip codes! But the reality is that zip codes are a synonym for poverty. So what the reformers meant was that poverty should not be destiny.
Would it were so! If only it were true that a child raised in an impoverished home had the same life chances as children brought up in affluent homes, where food, medical care, and personal security are never in doubt.
Imagine if all students had small classes in a school with beautiful facilities, healthy play spaces, the best technology, and well-paid teachers.But “reformers” insisted that they could overcome poverty by putting Teach for America inexperienced teachers in classrooms, because they (unlike teachers who had been professionally prepared) “believed” in their students and by opening charter schools staffed by TFA teachers. Some went further and said that vouchers would solve the problem of poverty. All of this was nonsense, and thirty years later, poverty and inequality remain persistent, unaffected by thousands of charter schools and TFA.
In effect, the reformers held out the illusion that testing, competition, and choice would level the playing field and life chances of rich and poor kids. After 30 or more years of corporate reform, it is clear that the reform message diverted our attention from the wealth gap and the income gap, which define the significant differences among children who have everything and children who have very little.
Imagine the cost of assuring that every school in the nation were equitably and adequately funded. Imagine if all students had small classes in a school with beautiful facilities, healthy play spaces, the best technology, and well-paid teachers. That would go a long way towards eliminating the differences between rich schools and poor schools, but our society has not taxed itself to make sure that all kids have great schools.
None of the promises of “reform” have been fulfilled. The cynical among us think that the beneficiaries of reform have been the billionaires, who were never willing to pay the taxes necessary to narrow income and wealth inequality or to fund good schools in every neighborhood. They gladly fund “reforms” that require chicken feed, as compared to the taxes necessary to truly make zip codes irrelevant.
Ravitch’s topic was about poverty and public health and education. The main idea is that the taxes that we all pay have not fulfilled the promise of improving the education and health care of the people. Ravitch mentions how a child’s zip code shouldn’t determine the type of education or destiny. The kids whose education is chosen based on their zip codes are experiencing less beneficial resources or great teachers. Ravitch’s supporting details is that the standardized test is pointless because after many years no big change has been made. Ravitch states”All of this nonsense, and thirty years later, poverty and inequality remain persistent,unaffected by thousands of charter schools and TFA”. She is arguing that this way is not the best way to improve education. She also shows us charters that point out that education or health care is not even near the number one concern for America or the presidents. The charts show that the military is what our tax money goes to. “ Trump discretionary budget request 2019, $1.19 trillion, and 61% ($727 billion) is to the military and 5% to education and health”. This conveys that the care for children to have better schools or health doesn’t seem to be the top priority which it should be. Our priorities are not being taken seriously or carefully. After reading this it made me feel like we are being used and played. It is as if an adult is tricking a child. It shows that America cares about how they are viewed by outsiders and caring less about the people living in the country.
I agree with Kawthar. Ravitch’s presentation deals with poverty and public health. The message conveyed was that citizens’ taxes have not enhanced the quality of education and healthcare for the population as promised. I agree with Ravitch when she said that zip codes should not determine a child’s educational prospects and life prospects. This can cause children’s educational opportunities to be dictated by their geographical location, leading to disparities in resources and access to quality teachers. Standardized testing has proven futile because substantial improvements for many years have yet to materialize. Ravitch challenged the notion that this approach is effective at improving education. At the end of my reading, I realize that in this country, education is important, but it is not important to keep schools level with each other. Why can only some schools be the same and not have to depend on the Zip to maintain them?
I agree with my classmates (Kawtar and Josue) because the truth is that it is an injustice that children are divided by the amount of taxes they pay in their Zip Code. I truly believe that all students should have the same education no matter the neighborhood. With the simple fact that a zip code determines what education a child has because this is not always good. A school in a region where few resources means that it does not have enough requirements to give a good education to its students because we know that everything a school receives depends on its zip code. At the end of my reading, what I could say is that I feel a little racism on the part of the government since they are the ones in charge of the school division.
I agree with you and believe that every student should have the right to a good education regardless of their economic status. Education is extremely important and it can affect a person’s career choice. I think that if every child had a right to a good education meaning that they had good teachers, a clean environment, and good resources, more people would advance their education. We could see more people going into college, and going into good careers.
Diane Ravitch’s argument in her op-ed was how economic status affects children’s access to public health and education. Her writing sheds light on the issue of the division in education between the wealthy and lower class and how corporate “reform” has not improved children’s right to good education and instead does the exact opposite and increases inequality based on wealth. Children who should be receiving the best education possible are missing out because of their zip codes and economic status. The purpose of the corporate reform is to improve the education policy but they have failed to do so as families of students with lower incomes have a significantly different education compared to the wealthy families of students. The corporate reform has “attempted” to equalize access to good education by standardized testing but according to Ravitch, “the reformers held out the illusion that testing, competition, and choice would level the playing field and life chances of rich and poor kids. After 30 or more years of corporate reform, it is clear that the reform message diverts our attention from the wealth gap and the income gap, which define the significant differences among children who have everything and children who have very little.” The reform has failed their promise of better education and has only diverted the wealthy and lower income through a system of testing. The charts show how our hard-earned tax money goes to an excessive amount of the military when it can be used to benefit the youth of America. I find it surprising that the United States spends more on defense than China, India, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea. I understand the importance of self-defense and protecting our country but this is an excessive amount of money that could be used to solve other issues in America. This says that our priorities aren’t in the right place, which is why there are so many issues in the U.S. Some of this money can be used towards inflation, healthcare, climate change, education, etc, but our priorities are not in helping the people of America.
Ravitch’s topic is poverty and public education, her main idea is about zip code reformers and how they failed to change the injustice of unequal opportunities in education. Major supporting details are that reformers thought that standardized testing would level the playing field between rich and poor kids in their chances to get into these gifted institutes, but after 30 years poverty and inequality remain persistent. The connection to the spending chart would be that education isn’t a big part of the budget, relying on zip codes to dish out funding is why schools don’t all have equal funding. This says that Americans prioritize military and foreign affairs over their own children and future leaders. Hearing that there have been almost 30 years of reform is shocking because there is still a big issue with wealth gaps and different opportunities in education.