As a society, we firmly believe that education is the key to achievement and success, but educational institutions can replicate systems of inequality. Sociologists have studied education from a variety of perspective. One of the studies, look at inequalities in schools, and is consistent with a conflict perspective. Which sees society as a system characterized by inequality and competition. Many parents and students in the wealthy school districts believe that educational inequalities is a thing of the past. Which unfortunately it’s not, and it still continues until this day.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/property-taxes-and-unequal-schools/497333/
Although Connecticut is one of the wealthiest states in the union, yet thousands of children here attend schools among the world’s worst in the country. For the students who live in a higher incomes towns like Greenwich, and Darien have better resources and easier access to those resources than compared to the students who live in a high poverty town like Bridgeport, and New Britain. These students have easy access to guidance counselors, school psychologists, personal laptops, and up to date textbooks. The districts of the high poverty, tend to have more students who need that extra help, due to not having those opportunities, and sometimes due to their family situation. But yet these districts have fewer guidance counselors, tutors, psychologists, lower paid teachers, and bigger size classes. Students who live in high poverty town, and do not have those resources, they are more likely to not get a higher education. Some students will be living with a single-parent who works full time to be able to provide for them. Sometime those students do not have the knowledge to apply to scholarships, colleges, universities and even financial aid which for that reason they won’t get a higher education. Sometimes the counselors can have a busy schedule so they will not always be able to help them. Those are only a few of the challenges that students will face that live in a high poverty town. The districts in high poverty should be able to receive funds as much or more than the students who live in the high-income. Most of the time we see students who live in the high-income and go to good schools, take for granted those opportunities, in which those who are in poverty can take advantage of. Unfortunately this is a nationwide problem, and Connecticut was not the first and will not be the last to wrestle with the a difficult problem caused by relying heavily on local property taxes to fund schools.
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