Educational Gap Growing Between Rich and Poor/Middle Class
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Tri-county area schools face similar problems as those in the rest of the nation and a large share of the dilemma they face is the economic level of children they serve.
A new report by the Brookings Institution on economic mobility in the United States shows that "the chance that children of the poor or middle class will climb up the income ladder...has not changed significantly over the last three decades."
To the credit of local leadership, increased educational levels now are a goal of not only schools but the community.
To be sure, a spark has been provided by the stunning success and acceptance of the Kalamazoo Promise. In that program anonymous donors have contributed enough to pay for a four year college education for any student who completes high school in Kalamazoo.
School enrollment has increased in Kalamazoo, with 1,000 new students coming in from 30 states, and new home sales and prices are rising.
Locally, the Bay Area Community Foundation and the Bay City Public Schools have teamed up to begin the Bay Commitment. This is a program that will seed a start in education among families who have never had a member attend college.
Aimed at changing the local culture that has not always made education a priority, the Bay Commitment kicks off May 14 when 100 scholarships of $2,000 each are slated to be awarded to high school seniors.
Recently, business leaders at a Bay Area Chamber of Commerce event, "Report to the Community," urged the community to embrace increased educational goals and dedication.
Chamber President Mike Seward noted the enthusiastic response from a packed crowd at Bay Valley to speakers who reinforced the connection between increased education and the local economy.
Several sources have noted that the number of adults over age 25 in Bay County with a college degree is 12.8 percent, half the state average. By contrast, Ann Arbor has about 50 percent of its adult population with college degrees.
The Bay Arenac Intermediate School District has provided leadership in collaborating with the Rotary Club of Bay City in distributing dictionaries to third graders and thesauruses to fourth graders countywide.
The Brookings report, "Economic Mobility in America," warns that "widening gaps in higher education between rich and poor, whites and minorities, could soon lead to a downturn in opportunities for the poorest families."
Furthermore, it concludes that "education can boost the mobility of children from poor and low-income families."
The educational attainment gap between rich and poor is stagnant, however, while the earnings gap between people at different levels of educational attainment is increasing.
Moreover, the economic mobility of African-Americans and Hispanics is constrained by the widening gap of college graduation rates between those groups and whites and Asian-Americans
. African-Americans and Hispanics continue to be overrepresented among high school dropouts, a group which has seen its real annual income drop from 1964 to 2005, according to the report.
Isabel V. Sawhill, Brookings fellow, has issued a report addressing economic and educational inequities. Here is an abstract of that report:
"Stagnating incomes for the middle class together with rising income inequality have raised questions about whether the United States remains the land of opportunity celebrated in the nation's history and public philosophy. This brief reviews the evidence on intergenerational mobility and the role of education in enabling less advantaged children to move up the economic ladder. It concludes that, in many respects, the U.S. education system tends to reinforce rather than compensate for differences in family background. Strengthening opportunity requires greater, and more effective, investments in education, especially for America's youngest children."
Brookings also questions: "Is No Child Left Behind enhancing educational opportunities for our most disadvantaged students?"
Another report, "Standards-Based Reform and the Poverty Gap: Lessons for No Child Left Behind," states past efforts to raise educational standards have done little to help poor children.
"Some strategies seem promising, such as requiring teachers to master their subjects, assessing core academic content, and offering free tutoring to struggling students," the institution concludes. "However, poor implementation of such reforms has curtailed their potential positive impact."
Candidates in the Presidential Primary elections now going on across the nation also have cited a need to reform No Child Left Behind. Specific proposals have yet to surface and the reform attempts undoubtedly will receive a thorough review by the public and the media.
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