Gonzalez 1

Leslie Gonzalez

English 1S

Susie Huerta Quesada

14 December 2017

Money buys Education

The Mendez v. Westminster School District case of 1945 was the first case that ever

successfully challenged educational segregation in court. Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez sent

their children to public school only to have their children seperated from the American students.

The Mendez’s established the relevance of internalized inferiority and how students cannot

escape that in public schools. This case was fought upon but was ultimately won through

appeals. 72 years later and the topic of segregation in public schools is still prevalent. Our

national public schools have systematically taken away the power of students and more profusely

on students of low socioeconomics.

Students of low socioeconomic status will have a loss of power because the education

being taught in public schools are a “large dose of basic skills”. Basic skills include Mathematics

and Reading/Writing solely. Some public schools cannot afford to focus on skills other than

Math and English so by pushing the importance of basic skills to children, they prepare students

for the workforce. When focusing on the workforce, after high school, higher education gets

thrown out the window consequently disempowering the students. An educational historian and

policy analyst, Diane Ravitch has a paper called “The Essentials of a Good Education” where she

talks about the purposes of public schools and the importance of having a rich curriculum.

Ravitch explains that policy makers believe the purpose of public school is to “raise intelligence”

in order for students to contribute back to the US economy by becoming future “managers”,
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“workers”, “consumers”, etc. (Ravitch 109) It put public school into a new perspective, a

perspective that students are being trained in school to be able to functionally maintain a job and

strengthen the economy. Ravitch is uncovering the real reason policy makers think of public

education as a secondary purpose. Policy makers and essentially nation public schools think of

students, mainly of low socioeconomic status, as “human assets”. (Ravitch 109) Referring to

students as human assets denotes how little importance policy makers have towards students,

they simply desire money. The schools are already separating students in public schools to have

mediocre jobs given their basic skills which can be blamed on of the budget cuts.

The Recession of 2008 was a period of general economic decline, which cause several

budget cuts to public schools damaging the opportunities of many children. Diane Ravitch also

exposes the truth about what policymakers think is most valuable being mathematics, english and

test scores. There is little urgency in non-tested subjects signifying public schools lack a rich,

endowed curriculum. A rich curriculum is having variations of extracurricular classes, not only

math and english. Ravitch clarifies, “Basic skills are necessary, but they are not enough to

prepare the citizen” (Ravitch 109). She is legitimizing the importance of exploration in sciences,

the arts, learning about our history, foreign languages, etc. These subjects all provoke critical

thinking and self-expression which is what students in public schools dearth. Learning all these

valuable subjects in school is just as useful as basic skills in a students career and life that there

needs to be more encouragement for students to explore in these topics, even if they are not-

tested.

Teachers play a huge role in a students educational career and teachers in public schools

are failing to expand the knowledge of students. In any public school teachers have different

teaching methods and there seems to be a disparity between private school teaching methods and
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public. Families of low income, mainly families of color, cannot afford private schools with

variation of teachers. Jean Anyon was a social activist and professor of educational policy, of her

several publications, she wrote an essay called “From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of

Work”. This essay was based on her observation of five elementary schools on different levels of

on the social ladder. She concludes the “hidden curriculum” would “reproduce” the education

level of students in certain socioeconomic status. Therefore students from different societies

already have a predestination. (Anyon 152) This suggests that if public schools fail at teaching

other subjects, other than basic skills, there is a large chance that it will continue to be this way.

Elite and private schools will continue to produce a superior student based on the knowledge

they gathered in their rich curriculum. When Anyon states “reproduce” she is referring to

national education system producing certain types of students whether it be based on income

level, race, and therefore students are taught systematically not equally.

The educational system is segregating students based on several classifications. Some of

the classifications Anyon has observed were “social class (...) income, occupations and other

social characteristics of the students and parents” (Anyon 138). The idea of separating students

will limit the knowledge of public schools compared to private and elite schools. Public school

students get cheated out of a powerful education because the public schools they attend set

barriers and teach children to follow steps not learn how to get from one step to the next. School

is all about figuring out what your next steps will be, by critically thinking not by conforming to

certain rules and regulations.

In public schools, policy makers need to make all students identical, to standardize these

students and take away their power. John Gatto was an award-winning educator of thirty years,

he wrote the article “Against School” he explains the realities of public schools and how
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manipulation takes place in public schools. Gatto mentions Alexander Inglis, who has a lecture

in education named after him at Harvard. Some of his work explains the ideas of the

manipulative manners of policy makers towards public school students, Inglis argues one of the

purposes as “The conformity function, because the intention is to make children as similar as

possible. People who conform are predictable” (Gatto 119). Inglis is disclosing how students are

being covertly manipulated by regulation schools impose such as; telling children exactly how to

do activities or they they would have to sit out for them. Imposing that much authority over

children gives you utter control over them, forming them however policy makers wish to. Once

the national public education system has these students in compulsory schools, their actions are

much more easier to predict as Inglis said and “harness a large labor force” (Gatto 119). To be

predictable is to not be unique and the fault in not being yourself is disempowering.

Public school students take several standardized tests only to be labeled as intelligent or

not. To measure students intelligence on “basic skills” is only a part of a their knowledge.

Ravitch critiques the value policy maker place on tests scores, “Our policy makers today think

that what matters most is getting high test scores in reading and mathematics. They don’t show

any regrets if a school spends inordinate amounts of time and money on test preparation

materials” (Ravitch 108). Obtaining high test scores is what brings in competition and essentially

money, so it's understandable why policy makers would focus on such results. Compulsory

schools prep students five days a week for six hours for these sort of tests and put pressure on the

students. Labeling the students into groups based on test scores is how children feel

disempowered.

As much as we blame students for going into the workforce after high school it is

ultimately the fault of policy makers. The lack of a rich curriculum in public schools affect the
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way students find their interests and later passion in life. Enforcing regulations on students

minds, blocks their creativity and conforms the students into standards. Public schools have yet

to empower students, they have instead segregated them based on the socio-economic status.