Privatization: The Downfall of Public Education
“We must work together to improve our public schools. We must extend the promise of equal educational opportunities to all the children of our nation. Protecting our public schools against privatization and saving them for future generations of American children is the civil rights issue of our time.” (325).
The book “Reign of Error” written by Diane Ravitch published by Vintage Books in 2013 shares the problem with the privatization of American schools. Public schools offer education to those who can not enter the private education sector for whatever reasons. The purpose of this institution is to provide students with equal opportunities to receive education and to better their lives. Not
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The author explains in her book the effects of mass segregation and poverty that can cause students to perform poorly in schools. Poverty can cause economic stress, an unstable home environment, improper healthcare opportunities, and fewer opportunities for enrichment for these students. These students have other worries that cause distraction from their learning. Segregation can also cause students to feel unmotivated in school because their peers and others around them have other worries that distract them from education which, could cause the students to perform poorly in school. Unlike their privileged counterparts who have less economic stress because their parents are able to financially support their students by being able to provide a stable home environment, proper health care opportunities to get mental or physical help, and more enrichment opportunities like tutoring, educational trips to museums, sanctuaries, music lesson. Making it easier for students to be able to focus more on school and less on their economic status effects. This causes a gap in educational opportunities which in turn causes a learning gap between the two groups of students (102-103). Another, attribute as to why poverty causes harm for a student's academic achievement is: “Poor mothers who don’t get prenatal care can …show more content…
“a commitment to equality means that federal resources should be allocated based on need.” (26). This is important to acknowledge because the needier a student is the more resources and money they need to achieve the same academic opportunities of their more privileged peers. Giving public funds to the private sector only harms poor-performing students' academic potential which, in turn, closes down these schools because they are producing low test scores. Another cause of underfunded schools