Discussion Post 2 Politics Pdf

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Schools with mostly white students often receive thousands of dollars worth of more funding per student, while primarily black schools struggle to find the funding for adequate faculty members and programs, leaving the students who would require the most help in a vicious cycle that ensures a lack of equal opportunities for future success (Joseph, “Black Lives Matter—at
School, Too”). This serves as a form of institutionalized racism, that has become so normalized in our society that many are able to remain blissfully unaware of the ongoings in many black communities. The article quotes an Eastern Michigan activist named Will Daniels, as follows:
“As a black student, my rationale for doing the die-in was that structural racism causes not only police brutality, but also the starving of majority black public schools. This is a subtler form of violence” (Joseph, “Black Lives Matter—at School, Too”). Last year for a specialized senior class I watched a very relevant documentary about the American public school system. The
2010 documentary “Waiting for Superman,” directed by Davis Guggenheim, describes the ways in which the school system fails and neglects poorer regions, often populated primarily by racial minorities. According to the film, prior to deindustrialization approximately 20% of students went on to achieve a college degree and went on to high salary careers (lawyers, doctors, CEO’s, etc), while a majority of students joined the work force in the realms of agricultural or factory related labor. Though the structure of our economy and the American work force has since changed dramatically, our school systems have not evolved to meet the need for a change of standards. It is still set up in a way that tracks an upper percentage of students for an early age and prepares them for success, but doesn’t provide the same opportunities to a lower rung of students, who are consequentially prepared for failure. George Joseph touches on this tendency in his article, when he said “…school districts have a perverse incentive to push out, rather than work with “problem” students, who may not contribute to schools’ primary concern in the age of education reform: high test scores” (Joseph, “Black Lives Matter—at School, Too”). He goes on to describe the way this contributes to what’s called “the school to prison pipeline,” in which school policies that track higher performing students and prepare them for success dually continue to neglect and push out the students who would require the most attention; preparing them for a life without a real future. The McGiveny Center is set up to combat this system, by giving students who are put at risk of falling through “the school to prison pipeline” the care and attention they’re likely not receiving in under-funded school programs. The McGiveny Center combats this system, by providing the students with after school homework help and tutoring to ensure that they receive the academic help they need in order to succeed in school. This helps them develop study habits and emphasizes the importance of education early on. The adult supervision is also a way to ensure that these students are using their time productively, as many of these youths likely have parents who are working while/after the children leave school and are unable to oversee that their children are using their time wisely.