TEHRAN, January 12 -America's schools are “profoundly unequal,” with low-income, minority students ending up in schools with crumbling walls, old textbooks and unqualified teachers, according to a new report by the US government.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -America's schools are “profoundly unequal,” with low-income, minority students ending up in schools with crumbling walls, old textbooks and unqualified teachers, according to a new report by the US government.
The US Commission on Civil Rights released the report on Thursday, urging Congress to take “bold action” to address inequitable funding in the country’s public school system.
“Although the United States Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that public education is a right that should be available to all on equal terms, the longstanding and persistent reality is that vast funding inequities in our state public education systems render the education available to millions of American public school students profoundly unequal,” the report states.
"This report excavates the enduring truism that American public schooling is, and has been, profoundly unequal in the opportunity delivered to students, the dollars spent to educate students, and the determinations of which students are educated together," writes the commission's chair, Catherine Lhamon.
According to the commission's report, the problem is that too many schools remain segregated along racial and socioeconomic lines and the fact that schools are most funded with state and local tax dollars, not by the federal government.
Wide racial disparities remain in US public schools, including in discipline, suspension, course access and teacher quality, according to data released by the US government.
From academic programs to teacher experience to advanced science and math courses, American schools that enroll large numbers of minority students lag far behind, according to a report by the US Education Department released last year.
The study, required by Congress and conducted biennially, shows that African-American students are 3.8 times more likely to receive one or more out-of-school suspensions than white students.
The study also found that minority students are badly underrepresented in nearly every type of advanced academic program in schools.
Moreover, the study found disturbing new evidence about “chronically absent” students, who miss 15 or more school days per due to suspension, illness or the need to care for a family member.
Source: Press TV
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