I listened to an NPR story on poverty in schools and America. Study after study shows academic achievement and success is directly proportional to two factors: How much money is spent on the child’s education and the economic class (and success) of the parents. In homes where the parents are struggling, unemployed, jailed or working in low-paying jobs, their participation in their own children’s schooling is lacking–perhaps due to indifference but more likely due to the inability to help. When schools in poorer districts have to cut back on everything from supplies, to staff, to facilities, and books, it naturally follows that students suffer. To make matters worse, the accountants and critics compare these impoverished kids on the same plane with privileged children in affluent neighborhoods and draw racist conclusions.
While these problems were detailed in Martin Luther King’s day, nothing has been done to address this form of slavery by enforced and intentional poverty. Charter schools have made the problem worse–far worse.
We can do better. We haven’t, but I think we can, but not with a racist in the White House.
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Published by William Vaughn
William Vaughn is an author, mentor, and granddad. He's lived and traveled all over the world, flew helicopters in Vietnam, won a few medals and retrained in the personal computer industry where he worked for about forty years, ultimately publishing about a dozen books.
In 2006, he redirected his career again, this time focusing on fiction writing. He has at least six books published with more to come. Search for his website http://betav.com.
He's passionate about environmental, healthcare and veteran's issues and posts regularly on his Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/William.R.Vaughn
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