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Essay / Race and class: education and criminal justice...
America demands that all young people receive an education and that its education system be free and open to all, regardless of class, race, ethnicity, age and gender. However, the system is broken. Inequalities still exist in the education system, and minorities' experience of education is shaped by discrimination and limited access, while white people's experience of education is shaped by privilege and access. The educational experience of minorities remains segregated and unequal. Indeed, the number of white children removed from school by their parents is greater than the number of people of color enrolled. White parents unconsciously practice the idea of “blockbusting,” where minorities begin to fill a school; white people transfer their children to a school that has a small or no minority population. They subconsciously feel that once their child goes to a school populated by minorities, that school will not receive adequate funding from the federal government. Bonilla-Silvia (2001) states that “inner-city minority schools, unlike white suburban schools, lack decent buildings, are overcrowded, and have outdated equipment…” (97). The No Child Left Behind law, which holds schools accountable for their students' progress, measures student performance on standardized tests. Most white children who attend suburban schools have the opportunity to have a beneficial educational experience; they have more access to technology, better teachers and a safe learning environment. Therefore, White students' experience with the education system is positive because it provides them with knowledge and a path to success. Plus, if their standardized tests are weak, the government would give the school...... middle of paper ...... Post-Civil Era, edited by Lynne Rienner. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. Davis, Angela Y. 1998. “Masked Racism – Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex.” ColorLines, Fall 1998, pp.1-4. (April 17, 2011) www.arc.org. Kozol, Jonathan. 2005. “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid.” Harper's Magazine, September 1, pp.1-20. Retrieved April 12, 2011 from www.mindfully.org. MacLeod, Jay. 2005 “Social immobility in the land of opportunities”. Pp. 1-8 in Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations Leveled in a Low-Income Neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Mickelson, Roslyn A and Smith Stephen S. 1984. Can Education Eliminate Race, Class, and Gender Inequalities? Pp 411-417. Reiman, Jeffrey. 2000. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Imprisoned: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice. Washington, DC: Allyn and Bacon.