As images of the desperate state of areas hit by Hurricane Katrina fade from memory, and the feel-good aura of Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations settles, we may be numbed into believing equality is widespread in our country.
Look no further than the 2007 budget to show what reality is – a rift of inequality still exists in our nation, especially in education.
Of the 141 programs President Bush hopes to slash to fund his war, 42 are education-related. Even in the best scenario that the war is “won,” what domestic losses will remain in its wake? The legacy is a nation burdened with debt, crippled with inadequate healthcare provisions and stupefied with the devaluing of education.
It’s an old measure of political honesty: balance a president’s words with the priorities he sets in his budget.
The proposed budget is strikingly similar to the current budget. It calls for an added $100 billion for homeland security, defense and the war in Iraq. As a consequence, nearly $1.5 billion in education programs will be eliminated. Of these cuts, $1.1 billion is in programs serving disadvantaged students.
The extreme correlation between status and quality of education could never be more obvious. With Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, the educational opportunities of the wealthy and middle class are climbing, while struggling schools are condemned to no funding. Clearly this act feeds the cyclic nature of poverty.
Politicians love to glamorize the unsettling technicalities of bills with pretty names. Frivolous acts like this one, paired with an utter recklessness for the long-term impact of cuts in education spending, foster a concentrated poverty in the United States.
Bush’s attempt to bridge the achievement gap between rich and poor students (by weakly funding IB and AP programs) is like trying to fix a gaping hole in a wall with one can of spackle: it’s not going to work. Schools are seeing this come true, where the same high schools that have IB and AP programs are registering a 50 percent dropout rate.
As a side note, apart from class issues, the effects of valuing war above the futures of our children are becoming apparent in more ways than one. Last week’s Time explored American boys’ steep decline in academic performance, while Newsweek’s cover story articulated America’s rapidly deteriorating competitiveness in the science field.
In addition, ABC aired “Stupid in America” on Jan. 14, which demonstrated that European students view American students as “stupid” – a well-founded opinion, considering that the average American student places 25th on an international 15-year-old average-intelligence exam.
Where do all these warnings point? They point to America’s non-commitment to the long-term, its obsession with quick, short-term fixes (and unfounded celebration of total equality) and its willingness to accept a shriveling education system. Wake up, America: or else, fear the future of idiots.
