African American Education Research Paper

Education for African Americans
Joshua Light Some believe school systems have advanced and have gotten a lot better over the years. There is no arguing that our educational system has been transformed and much of that credit goes to advancing technology, but who exactly is education advancing for? The United States continues to make improvements in the area of education and has created a plan within the government to apparently establish any hurdles to an equal education. An example of this is the United States Department of Education directed to erase the racial diverseness in the education system. A sub agency of the United States Education System, the Office for Civil Rights, has expanded its duties from simply conducting laws, to now overseeing
Spending at one school can make a huge difference on the quality of education than from another school. The school spending difference is often significant because teacher’s salaries are based on their experience and approval or college degrees they might have earned. Low poverty schools have more experienced and higher paid teachers, than a high poverty school where the teachers can be inexperienced, low salaries and a high turn over rate. Research in Baltimore found teacher’s at one school in a high poverty neighborhood were paid on average $36,600 a year, where at another school in the same district the average teacher’s salary was $57,000 a year in a low poverty neighborhood. If both schools have twenty teachers the difference in dollars available for the two schools is over $400,000 a year. Think about how much equipment, supplies, and higher quality teachers that much money can provide for a school. School funding in most states is tied to the wealth of the neighborhood. Communities and students that are at an economic disadvantage often need the most help and are unable to receive the quality of education provided by other schools. Every state across the country needs to expand school funding improvements to ensure that every student gets the highest quality education no matter what school district or neighborhood they happen to live
African Americans living in southern states lived in very poor areas, had the lowest paying jobs, had the worst equipment, and were provided with the worst facilities. In these areas were the worst financed schools. This problem was huge in the southern part of the United States but also seen throughout the country. For example, South Carolina spent three times more on white only schools than black only schools. Transportation was spent one hundred times more on white schooled children than African American schooled children. With all these factors, white children were provided with the best schools and education while African American children were very limited to the schools within the area they lived in. During this time the value of school property in South Carolina for white students was six times greater than school property for African American students. Believe it or not the state of Mississippi during this time was worse. The school year was shorter for African Americans, teachers were paid less, and books they used were ones no longer needed by white students. In the same time period most minority students were stuck in schools with a lot of teachers who were new. Twenty percent of these teachers failed to meet license and certification requirements as seven percent of African Americans were forced to attend schools with these teachers. Teachers in schools with higher African American and Latino