Paul Stultz

Professor Sue Briggs

English 1050
August 6, 2014

One of the biggest social inequalities facing the United States is the funding gap that
exists between our educational institutions. Cities typically fund K-12 education via property
taxes, which means that areas with low property values have lower quality education.
Education is necessary in providing the opportunity to rise above poverty. Ironically, this means
that the areas with the greatest need for educational opportunity are also the most poorly
funded. The property tax model of funding schools is perpetuating social and economic
inequality in American society.
A big contributor to this situation is explained by Mike Davis in "Fortress Los Angeles:
The militarization of Urban Space." Davis tells a story on how the city of Los Angeles has
systematically and willfully segregated the poor and other "undesirables" of society into
insulated and isolated communities. These places are poverty-stricken, have high levels of
crime, low levels of security, and low levels of educational opportunity. City planners are not
investing in improving these places with the hopes that residents will become productive
citizens. "[T]he quality of any urban environment can be measured, first of all, by whether
there are convenient, comfortable places for pedestrians to sit. ... a few blocks away, the city is
engaged in a relentless struggle to make the streets as unlivable as possible for the homeless
and the poor." (289) If you happen to live in one of these places, it is almost impossible to
escape the cycle of poverty. The property values in these areas plummet. Among all this
dysfunction it is impossible to fund and run an effective school system.
Class discrimination also plays an big role. A key catch-phrase here would be, "you have
to have money to make money." Steven Greenhouse illustrated this concept in "Worked Over
and Overworked." Those that have money - in this case, the big businesses - are using their
power and influence to profit at the expense of those that don't have money - in this case, their
own employees. Businesses are purposefully limiting employee clock hours to get around
having to provide any benefits and keep profit margins high. This results in employees having
to work multiple low-paying jobs just to make ends meet, and even then government assistance
is sometimes needed. A quote that struck me was, "A few people I work with are living at
home with their parents. Some are even on food stamps." (404) Funds are thus being sucked
out of these communities, which further perpetuates the lack of opportunity. Furthermore, if
you are working multiple jobs just to feed and house yourself, then you have no time for
getting an education anyway.
Poor health is another factor. Many poor are trapped in areas of industrial waste and
pollution and cannot afford to leave. Jason Berry's essay, "Cancer Alley: The Poisoning of the
American South," tells about how the very profitable energy and chemical industry have over
time taken an area, "clothed in flowers, like a bride - no, much more so; like a greenhouse" (314)
and converted it to a place called "Cancer Alley." This further erodes the property value in
afflicted locations, which impacts educational opportunity, effectively trapping residents in an
unhealthy place with little hope for escape.
In conclusion, it is clear that our current education system is broken from a economic
class standpoint. Communities with successful and well educated residents have the financial
power to provide their children with the tools to live their own successful lives, while
communities in poverty barely have the tools to provide for basic survival needs. Society has
been setup by those in power to serve themselves, and there seems to be little understanding
by those in power that denying opportunity to the poor drags health of society down for
everybody, themselves included. I see much benefit to restructuring public education in such a
way that funding is directed according to need, to the benefit of all.

Works cited
Berry, Jason. "Cancer Alley: The Poisoning of the American South," Reading Culture: Contexts
for Critical Reading and Writing. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Longman, 2012.
313-319. Print.

Davis, Mike. "Fortress Los Angeles: The militarization of Urban Space." Reading Culture:
Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Longman,
2012. 287-293. Print.

Greenhouse, Steven. Worked Over and Overworked. Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical
Reading and Writing. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Longman, 2012. 404-415.

"How Do We Fund Our Schools?" Where We Stand: America's Schools in the 21st Century.
Public Broadcasting System (PBS). Web. 6 Aug. 2014.
<http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wherewestand/reports/finance/how-do-we-fund-our-
schools/197/>.