The History Of School Choice

Improved Essays
One of the most important issues for parents is their child’s education. The quality of education that a child receives is based largely on where they attend school. The topic of school choice and how it affects a student’s ability to obtain a high-quality education is a vastly debated topic in education today. This essay will explain the history of school choice, give an examination of the options available to students’ selection of schools, and whether or not public funding of school choice should continue to be made available to students.
Providing equal educational opportunities to all students is a distinctive challenge for America’s schools. Students in the United States come from an assortment of family circumstances, income levels,

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the United States, the school serves as a primary institution in regards to the education and socialization of any given community’s children. Over the course of the nearly two-hundred-year history of public education in America, the school has come to replace other significant institutions, such as the church and family, in the daily lives of most students. Children between the ages of 7 and 18 spend a majority of their time in school learning content in addition to being socialized to fit within societal norms. Joel Spring’s Goals of Public Schooling, the introductory text to the course, provides historical insight into the development of the school’s role in society. From the era of Thomas Jefferson’s meritocracy ideology where school’s sole purpose was to enable children with basic skills to Edward Ross’ declaration of school being “a form of social control” a sense of societal liability has been bestowed upon schools.…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Equalizing School Funding

    • 1914 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Public Education across the United States has been under attack for several years. Parents want school districts, administrators and teachers to be accountable for their children’s education; however, they do not want to finance their schools. School districts are forced to work with the income they have. This income varies from district to district and state to state. Affluent districts across the United States have larger budgets than poor districts causing great inequalities in students’ education.…

    • 1914 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While eighteenth-century Americans may have experienced a blurring in socioeconomic barriers, class division in 2016 is as prominent as it has been in in nearly a century (Adair). As of 2014, the average income of the top .1 percent of Americans make about 184 times more money than the bottom 90 percent of Americans. These citizens, who make an average yearly income of $33,068, are not given the same opportunities as their wealthier counterparts, contrary to popular belief (Income Inequality). Those who live in poverty are not afforded the same options to education that others are. It is indisputable that a child attending a private school with a yearly tuition of $40,000 in the Upper East Side would be given the upperhand in college acceptance in comparison to a student in a South Bronx public school whose parents make $20,000 a year.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Another statistic that exhibits the effects of a student’s socioeconomic status on their academic performance in college, is one restated by Forbes, “about 55% of the bachelor’s degrees awarded in the U.S. went to students from top-quartile families with 2010 income above $98,875; 9.4% of those degrees went to students with family income below $33,000” (Fisher 1) Both of these statistics reveal the effects of two of the…

    • 1939 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    According to Callan, “families that have a history of sending kids to college will do whatever it takes, even if that means a huge amount of debt” to send their kinds to college. But low income students will be less able to afford college. In 2007, a four-year public university was worth to 28 percent of the median family income, while a private university would cost 76% of the median family income. In the text book, Mooney talks about race and ethnicity.…

    • 1398 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the United States, high school graduates are faced with various options when deciding what route, they plan to take after high school. Some students may decide to enlist in the Armed Forces, go straight into the work force, enroll in a 4-year university or college, or a 2-year community college, though most high school graduates, 69% in fact, chose to continue their education and enroll in some form of post-secondary institution (United States Bureau of Labor Statistics). A study by the United States Bureau and Labor Statistics discovers that of those who chose to enroll in a post-secondary institution, majority happen to be Asian (83%), followed by Whites (71.1%), Hispanics (68.9%) and African Americans (54.6%) and of those who continue…

    • 1980 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Undocumented Students

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages

    These students are of first generation immigrants, brought to the country as children. Growing up with little or no attachment to their birth county, they grow up as Americans, having lived in the U.S all their lives. Upon graduating high school, it is then that most of these students learn of their undocumented status and have to work to overcome barriers to continue their education in college institutions while gaining citizenship. Perhaps one of the largest issues students have to deal with is paying for their higher education.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Schools are very important for students. In school, we can learn a lot of things, but students need the right teachers and the material to be successful in life and for a better education. Jean Anyon in “Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work” shows that in some schools they don’t have the right teachers or material because of the economy or the neighborhood the schools are located. Also low-income people do not get the same education as people with a good economy.…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Equal opportunity in education is as realistic in America as it is to lick your own elbow or fitting your whole fist in your mouth. Equal opportunity in education is the prevention of any discriminatory acts against students, staff and faculty; however, in Mike Rose’s, “I Just Wanna Be Average”, he argues that the educational system is completely unjust for those in a lower program and that those that are in those lower education programs are not being challenged to their full potential. Rose brings up many important points in his study about the educational system, but fails to mention other factors that could cause a student to not reach their true potential. These factors, such as race and social class, nowadays, contribute greatly in the…

    • 1311 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Effects of Being Low-Income on High Achieving Students Financial struggle is rising as the economy becomes worse. This struggle affects people in many areas such as financially, emotionally, and everyday necessities to live. An area that struggling financially affects people, but is often overlooked, is education. Academic success influences low-income families who pursue a higher education. Each member from our group comes from a low-income background while at the same time striving for a higher education and a chance to move away from this economic instability.…

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is evident that there has been a restriction to certain social groups in society when we discuss school choice as financial power creates a divide in accessibility to schools (Cobbold, 2007). The notion of choice is limited to many as the financial disparities of low-socioeconomic status…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Common School Movement Shardul Mahida Temple University The Common School Movement From the earliest days of American settlement, education has been a concern. The common school movement is the turning point during the eighteenth century in the United States which changed everything about education. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the moment and how it has impacted the education in America. Three distinctive features of the common school movement: All children attended the same school and were taught the same political and social ideology; the government used the common schools as instruments to government policy; states created agencies to control local schools.…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reading “School is Bad for Children,” by John Holt triggered a memory. When I was younger, I dreaded my first day of school. I remember it vividly. My first day of Pre-K, I screamed and whined for my brother who was a few grades above me. School was an unknown concept as a child.…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Education is something that everyone considers a priority. Therefore, it is what makes us chase our dreams and majority of us it is the key to our success in life. Education enables our potential and also plays a paramount role in the modern industrial world. A school is an institution where students acquire knowledge and skills that will be of use in their future, so choosing the best school is extremely difficult. One dilemma that parents have to go through is deciding their child’s education path whether to send them to private or public school.…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Students who live in poverty are often struggling with many issues besides going to school. The use of equity can help improve students well being in school. Students may come to school hungry, abused or tired, which can affect the class and teacher.…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays