Essay On Social Class In America

Dear congress, I come before you as a common Mexican-American citizen, although a minority I rarely feel oppressed in this great nation of ours. As America symbolizes democracy, but more importantly is known as the land of the free. This last part, “land of the free” is slowly being blurred and forgotten. As ones, social class dictates their potential in a capitalistic America where the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor, this is evident in the outdated education system where lower income students must endure much more to succeed, while on the other hand the upper-class students have access to better resources which grants them better opportunities. It is not the land of the free where one is constantly oppressed by an education system seeking only to polarize social classes. As a member

This is more than evident in our current school system which is plagued by uneven funding, as schools receive much of their money by local taxes and the schools located in the better neighborhood receive better supplies, resources, and education; compared to those in lower income neighborhoods. Students do not choose to be born into a lower class, but must compete with higher income students. For example, the teachers available to teach AP classes or other college accredited courses are usually nonexistent or are very few, and are restricted to a few subjects in a lower income school. This adds to the expense of college for the lower income student, who pass the already unfair admissions barrier. Colleges use the SAT or the ACT scores to judge high school seniors for admission, and a higher score usually correlates with being accepted to a desired institution, but also opens opportunities to more prestigious institutions. That said higher income students will pay more for expensive test tutors who train said students into learning the test taking tricks and almost guarantee a higher test