Abdul Abad
Topics in Social and Political Philosophy
Professor Howard McGary
May 1st, 2014
1. Introduction
In the literature on educational equality of opportunity, the debate is often between egalitarian theories and adequacy theories. Egalitarian theories focus on distribution and allocation of resources, primarily money, and egalitarian theorists differ on how exactly resources ought to be distributed. Justice, for the egalitarian theorist, involves an equal distribution of resources for all parties. Adequacy theories focus on more than simply money to achieve a standard, and justice according to adequacy theories involves meeting some minimum level of opportunity that anyone can meet. The upshot of adequacy theories is that they account
…show more content…
Brighouse’s basic and secondary arguments for equality articulate his (and Adam Swift’s) reasons why: The basic arguments tells us that merit ought to dictate access to educational opportunity, and not factors exogenous to merit; even if we meet the threshold of adequacy, we are constrained by that principle to distribute opportunity equality (i.e. according to merit). Brighouse’s secondary argument involves a presumption in favor of making the intrinsic benefits of education equally available to all, and this provides a further reason – even if the adequacy criterion is met – to care about inequalities in distribution of educational opportunity even once the threshold of adequacy has been met. It is an unfortunate consequence for adequacy views whose theoretical underpinnings aligns with a sufficientarian conception of justice that once some notion of adequacy is met, there is no longer cause for concern. In other words, once we meet some adequacy threshold, there is no way of identifying inequalities unconnected with this threshold. Perhaps this distinction between adequacy and equality is still not rigorous enough, and we need to consider whether Anderson and Satz are merely monistic about adequacy: perhaps they believe that justice requires nothing more. Anderson notes that the …show more content…
This matters for education reform and policy making. For example, perhaps current adequacy rhetoric is more viable because policies that demand “enough for all” are easier to obtain and bring about than policies that demand “equal for all” (consider trying to raise the amount of money received per pupil in poorer school districts to match those of students in richer school districts. This would be incredibly expensive). The distinctions drawn between adequacy and equality views here can be particularly helpful in policy making by making clear what the moral foundations of these views and their
In the study of The Way Schools Work we learned to question the ideals of meritocracy and the American dream. However, Conflict Theories challenge the system of meritocracy, in which people are sorted and selected on the basis of talent and ability. On the contrary, “Conflict Theories, on the other hand, imply a system of inheritance in which people’s life chances are largely determined by their starting point within an existing structure of inequality” (McNamee and Miller Jr. 2014, 11). According to these theorists mentioned in The Way Schools Work (Boudin 1974; Bowles and Gintis 1976; Carnoy 1972; Carnoy and Levin 1985; Persell 1977), they speak about how schools reproduce status in several ways. First, they use formal language, and hold
Furthermore, Chapter 15 begins to explain educational inequality. In the United States, education is available but not to every child in the same way. Different social-classes means different schools, instructions, criteria, rates, and times. In addition to class differences, races and ethnics unfortunately play a role in educational achievement. For example, in general, African Americans, Latino/a’s, and Native Americans usually do worse in school than white or Asian American students
Louis P. Pojman and Robert Westmoreland, eds., Equality: Selected Readings (New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1997), 33.
Tomlinson & Imbeau (2010) believe that there is a strong association between opportunities in life and educational opportunity. However, Tomlinson & Imbeau (2010) argue that people often misconstrued the notion of equal access to education to mean that all students should receive the exact same pacing, resources and instruction in the classroom. Therefore creating a one size fits all education system. More importantly, differentiated instruction recognises that students are not the same and that access to equal education means that given a certain goal, each student should be provided with the resources, instruction and support to facilitate them in meeting that objective (Tomlinson & Imbeau, 2010, p. 12).
Lamb, Kevin. "The Problem of Equality". The Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies. v20, #4 (Winter 1995) 467-479.
Inequalities in Education Funding inequalities have been an issue from past to present, especially in the low-income communities. In fact, students in urban areas with less funding have low attendance, score lower on standardized testing, and a low graduation rate. Also subjected to outdated textbooks, old dilapidated buildings, students in the inner cities need to compete with their suburban and wealthy counterparts for this reason funding inequalities must end and more money should be directed to these communities from federal, state, and local governments. Frank Johnson, a writer for the National Center for Education Statistics, “Disparities in Public School Spending.”
In the essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal” by Jonathan Kozol, the situation of racial segregation is refurbished with the author’s beliefs that minorities (i.e. African Americans or Hispanics) are being placed in poor conditions while the Caucasian majority is obtaining mi32 the funding. Given this, the author speaks out on a personal viewpoint, coupled with self-gathered statistics, to present a heartfelt argument that statistics give credibility to. Jonathan Kozol is asking for a change in this harmful isolation of students, which would incorporate more funding towards these underdeveloped schools. This calling is directed towards his audience of individuals who are interested in the topic of public education (seeing that this selection is from one of his many novels that focus on education) as well as an understanding of the “Brown v. Board of Education” (1954) case, which ties in to many aspects of the author’s essay. With the application of exemplum, statistics, and emotional appeals, Jonathan Kozol presents a well developed argument.
The issue of equality in education is not a new problem. In 1787, our federal government required all territories petitioning for statehood to provide free education for all citizens. As part of this requirement, every state constitution included, “an education clause, which typically called for a “thorough and efficient” or “uniform” system of public schools” (School Funding 6). Despite this requirement, a “uniform” system of schools has yet to be achieved in this country for a variety of reasons, many of which I will discuss later on. During the early part of th...
Some people may believe that education all over the United States is equal. These people also believe that all students no matter their location, socioeconomic status, and race have the same access and quality of education, but ultimately they are wrong. Throughout history, there has been a huge educational disparity between the wealthy and marginalized communities. The academic essay “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon, an American critical thinker and researcher in education, conveys that depending on the different economic backgrounds students have, they will be taught in a specific way. He reveals that the lower economic background a child has then the lower quality their education will be and the higher their economic background is the higher quality their education is. Anyon’s theory of a social ladder is extremely useful because it sheds light on the
This paper explores the way social inequality affects schooling. In a classroom setting, one student can be treated unequally just because of their race, ethnic background or religion. Taking notes from Purcell- Gates and Boykin, A.W. & Noguera, P., the topics of ethnicity and the achievement gap will be discussed in the event that all students should be treated equal. Also bringing in the topic of the “No Child Left Behind Act” introduced by former president George W. Bush in 2001 and was signed into law in 2002. For a long time, social inequality places a negative effect on schools around the country. The common urban verse suburban educational battle has been going on for way to long and there is a fix that needs to be made.
All people deserve the right of education equality no matter gender, race or financial income. According to the daily star, by 2015 only seventy percent of countries will have achieved equality between the sexes in primary education and fifty six percent will have achieved equality in lower secondary education. Education equality is one of the main problems in school systems.
Education should be equal because everyone deserves to be educated no matter of financial background. Schooling provides a lot of benefits for students and the separation elevates one student over another. Education is often viewed as the key to success and since everyone is not given the same tools to succeed something needs to be improved. Public school should be abolished because they do not allow equal opportunities for students and the education provided is not equal.
Many people don’t want to believe that we are living in a social injustice environment in this country. They choose to ignore the fact that rich are getting richer while the poor are just getting poorer. The rich public schools are giving their students the necessary opportunities to live a decent life while the poor students are left out and have to struggle for those opportunities. The social injustice is visible to every citizen in this country and it continuing to grown; however, there is a few solutions to minimize and possibly to solve the social injustice problem we have in American. One of them is give equal education in all public schools so everyone can have an equal opportunities in getting the jobs and careers they choose. Second
In this paper I am going to present an theoretical school district, school, and a classroom as examples of the ideal that our educational system should strive to achieve. The philosophy my schools will be based on is one of equality. Every single child will have an opportunity to receive the best possible education. However, we will never lower our standards for the sake of equality. Each child will be pushed to his or her personal best, not an average standard.
In terms of talking about the accessibility of school funding, equality of opportunity would be where all public schools are distributed the same amount money for their school. Once the money is distributed, it should then be spread evenly amongst areas in dire need of help. Money could be dispersed to help aid in special needs for kids, in support the arts, music, and sports programs, or for technology that may be a useful teaching tactic. Most importantly, this funding would be given to the areas and programs that were struggling, and where students would benefit the most. If a school had an outstanding arts and music program, but their special education department was lacking, money should be given to the education department to help make improvements and provide the teachers and students with the proper resources.