For Poor Leap To College Often Ends In A Hard Fall Siglitz Analysis

Jordan Wagner EN 101

Laura Kochman
11 April 2013
The Education Gimmick
America has always been seen as the land of opportunity. From employment to education, the principle of equal opportunity for all has been preached since America’s founding.
Statistics are showing however that the “equal” part of the opportunity principle in America is becoming less and less true. Specifically higher education is becoming a more complex goal among lower income families and minorities. In the article, “For Poor, Leap to College Often
Ends in a Hard Fall” by Jason DeParle, the journey of trying to get through and to manage the college lifestyle is detailed through the lives of three Texas teenagers. In the article DeParle gives the personal accounts of young women who had promising futures who just could not seem
Another was bound by family ties and felt obligated to stay close to home lest she “dessert her family.” The last girl profiled in the article did not know how to handle the college experience and penultimately ended up limiting herself to where she could not be successful in college. The other article, entitled “Equal
Opportunity, Our National Myth” by Joseph E. Siglitz examines the gap in equality between races, social, and financial classes, and also how much wider the gap has become in recent years.
Throughout the article Stiglitz details certain policies in America such as the GI bill, that supposedly support the equality of opportunity in America but end up excluding some group of

people do to stipulations required for each policy. Together through accounts from people and examples of not so equal opportunity policies, it is safe to say that these articles agree on the notion that there is no such thing as equality of opportunity in the United States in education nor employment. One area that the two articles compare on right off the bat is their stance on the gap between rich and poor citizens in America. Both articles agree that the gap between affluent
DeParle Article Summary
Education is becoming a more and more pressing problem in America. In the article, “For
Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall,” Jason DeParle describes the life of three girls who go on a journey to obtain a quality education. In Galveston, Texas there lives three girls by the name of Angelica Gonzales, Melissa O’Neal, and Bianca Gonzalez. Each one strived to be better than their parents. Angelica was the daughter of a struggling Mexican immigrant. Bianca had to raise her younger siblings due to her father’s untimely passing. Melissa had to deal with a alcoholic mother and her string of alcoholic boyfriends. All three overcame their initial adversity and made it through high school. Bianca ended up attending community college near home.
Melissa traveled to former United States president Lyndon B. Johnson’s alma mater, Texas State.
Angelica traveled to Georgia to attend Emory University. However once the trio reached college their circumstances was too great for them. Melissa could not achieve her full potential because she was stuck on an old boyfriend. After Bianca’s grandfather passed she felt that she would