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Emery Salman

"educational justice for all"

          In his treatise Emile, or Education, renowned Enlightenment-era philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau remarks the following of humanity and education; “We are born weak, we need strength; we are born destitute of all things, we need assistance; we are born stupid, we need judgment. All that we have not at our birth, and that we need when grown up, is given us by education.” Although Rousseau’s observations are correct, that does not mean that equal educational opportunities have always resided as hallmarks of society. When it comes to receiving an education, one group of people or another has always had access to nothing at all or had an inferior version of what others received; women, minorities, and the poor to name a few. Society’s progression and advancement rest on the shoulders of the educated; however, obstacles continue to lie in the way of certain members of society receiving a quality education, leaving improvements towards educational justice still necessary to this day. 

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          Since the time in which Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, huge milestones in the women’s rights movement have been reached. The successful suffrage movement in the early 20th century, the signing of Title IX into law in 1972, and the first female Vice President sworn in this year all mark significant and remarkable achievements for the women’s rights movement that Wollstonecraft helped to propel. Despite all these achievements in education and beyond, roadblocks still exist for women to this day. One huge disparity between the rights of men and women presently shows itself in the gender pay gap. In 2018, researchers at the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan research foundation, found that women earned only 85% of what men earned. Along with this, gender discrimination is still a problem women face daily in the workplace and beyond. Recognizing that progress has been made goes hand in hand with recognizing that there is still progress yet to be made, particularly in regards to the rights of women. 

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          Another group historically discriminated against within the education system are racial minorities, particularly African Americans. The most long-standing example of racial discrimination within the education system is the segregation of schools, which formally lasted in the United States until the landmark court decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, but persisted even after the decision. Across the United States, but particularly in the South, African Americans were forced to sit in the backs of buses, drink from separate water fountains, and faced exclusion from the schools attended by white children. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said of the injustice of school segregation, “Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.” The segregation of schools ensured that African American students received an inferior education, which in turn created a cycle of African Americans being less educated when compared to white students, perpetuating a cycle of racial educational inequality for decades to come. 

 

          Ruby Bridges, an African American six year old in 1960, is depicted bravely walking to school escorted by US marshals to her elementary school in New Orleans in Norman Rockwell’s 1963 painting appropriately titled The Problem We All Live With. In the painting, Bridges is shown walking head held high to school surrounded by marshals; in the background, a racial slur, the phrase “KKK,” and the remains of splattered food thrown at the girl. Her actions were incredibly difficult but necessary in order to see real changes, seeing as the deep south largely supported the principles of racism and segregation. Justice was not achieved for African American students at the time of segregation, seeing as justice and equality suffer immensely when members of a society are treated differently based on the color of their skin. During segregation, the phrase “separate but equal” demonstrated the twisted belief that separate schools for whites and blacks could somehow be truly equal and provide the same level of education for both groups. Separation and discrimination will always breed injustices, so this belief in equality while separated will never reign true. 

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          Although racial segregation is no longer legal in the United States, forms of racism still remain in the education system. A prime example of this educational racism shows itself through the ways in which public schools receive funding. The problem with the funding of public schools is that the collection of school funding comes primarily from property taxes from the area of the school. This may seem like a mere geographical difference, however, at large this means that schools in low-income neighborhoods receive significantly less funding than schools in higher income areas, where larger property taxes are collected. Educational funding is a form of educational justice; one school receiving thousands of dollars more per student, which can be spent on technology and resources, while another school receives very little is not just. 

 

          The disparity between the funding can be seen around the country, Connecticut just one such example. High-income areas such as Greenwich are able to spend $6,000 more per student than Bridgeport, a low-income city. $6,000 more per student is a very large amount of funding, and marks the difference between the education received by those in high versus low income neighborhoods. This money can be spent on technology, tutors, teachers, and better facilities. These items may seem like nice extras for students, but they make all the difference between a standard or subpar education and an education that makes a significant impact on the life and character of a student. Receiving an inferior education sets up students for difficulties that they do not need to face in their lives, but are forced to nonetheless due to their socio-economic stature. Zip codes should not be the determinate for receiving a quality education; every student deserves an education that can provide them the tools that they need to become productive adults of good character. 

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          Despite the immense progress made regarding the educational opportunities for women and minorities in the United States, resting on our laurels as a country is not the right move. Continuing to work to make every aspect of our society more just and better able to serve all people must remain a steadfast goal for everyone in our nation. Our society thrives and becomes better when we are all educated, therefore making education a priority for the centuries to come is the best path to pursue.

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Bibliography 

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