Schools, Poverty, and the Idea that they will Cure Poverty Alone

 

Schools inherently cannot cure this problem [poverty], and in essence they were never tasked with that.  Poverty was to be collateral effect of students who acquired a better education, which would intern change their socio-economic status through trades, education, or enterprise.  For some reason we seem to believe that education in and of itself will cure the problem of being destitute.  However, here are other barriers that exist that can nullify the result of education.  Access to financial opportunities, employment opportunities, wealth investment which includes being asset owners, such as private property, as well as career growth, and glass ceilings.  Education by itself is just one criterion in the slope to financial stability.

“The idea that school, by itself, cannot cure poverty is hardly astonishing, but it is amazing how much of our political discourse is implicitly predicated on the notion that it can.”

 

The second issue mentioned, and I will just note it was the realization that politicians do nothing about the locality of the problem though they know it exists.  The different approaches, according to the reading of Bush versus Gore could be part of the problem.  There should not be a competition of ideas but an acceptance of many ideas for a problem that shifts like an amoeba, depending on the circumstances.  There is no pilot program that fits all sizes.  It must be a wholistic approach rather than a standardized solution.  Also, the idea that bad schools perpetuate poverty is not the real issue.  The quality of education and the lack of resources lead to bad schools.  Given the right environment and resources, with a consistent approach the very same school becomes a good school in a matter of time, much like the movie Lean on Me.  If we can allocate resources to house, feed, cloth, and provide health care for illegal immigrants with the stroke of a pen, why can’t we allocate the same funding to these so-called poverty strapped environments that have languished like this for decades? Need I say it directly, black neighborhoods are the bottom of the totem pole, even in the social justice era, and continuingly we address other issues that are more politically convenient yet give no real justice to these areas of need though we know they exists.  You marginalize the marginalized.

Lastly, the article addresses the idea of class in society.  Rather it states equality.  Simply put, class is not an educational result but a societal result.  When a predominant portion of society envisions a particular sect as inferior, there is no amount of education that can overcome a moralistic value that intrinsic with their sense of being.  There must be a cultural shift, which is generally generationally that accompanies, the direct object of the masses ire and rejection that can alter the balance of societal perspective.  When this occurs, perception opens the door to equality, which opens the door to equality of opportunity.  That is simply a change of heart on a national scale.

In conclusion, if I were to pick one issue as the most important, it would be opportunity and resources.  If you ask a minority whether the choice was deal with someone who despised him while at the same time reaping the financial ability to be equal, the average person will say yes.  Poverty is a vicious evil, and in many ways viler than mistreatment.  A man or woman can soothe the pain of maltreatment with success in spite of, but if there is no success and the drudgery of non-existence, that is a weight no one should bear so well.