Alejandro Gonzalez
  
Laura Govoni

English 1302

November 14, 2014

School For The Poor

          The correlation between education and poverty has statistically been proven. “Family income is now a better predictor of children’s success in school than race” (Reardon). As the United States faces a growing dropout epidemic. Dropouts face a bleak life when compared to peers whom have graduated. Less job opportunity, lower paying jobs, and suffer a variety of adverse health outcomes (Rumberger). Dropout rates of 16 to 24-years-old students who come from low income families are seven times more likely to drop out than those from families with higher incomes. (“11 Facts About Education”).  High-income families are increasingly focusing their resources — their money, time and knowledge of what it takes to be successful in school. “The economists Richard Murnane and Greg Duncan report that from 1972 to 2006 high-income families increased the amount they spent on enrichment activities for their children by 150 percent”(Reardon).  The poor also tend to engage in crime related activities that trickles down to taxpayers paying the bottom line.

Unfortunately, the United States seems to be one of the few powerful nations to be suffering from this discrepancy. While Korea, Russia, Vietnam, and Finland rank better in Math and Science, their levels of poverty are far worse than the United States (Chappell). As the global economy progresses and the United States falls farther and farther behind in school what are we to do? Who can we blame? What is the solution?

Works Cited

Reardon, Sean. “No Rich Child Left Behind.” NYTimes . 27 Apr. 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2014. 

"11 Facts About Education and Poverty in America." DoSomething.org. Web. 7 Nov. 2014.

Rumberger, Russell. "SES Indicator: May 2013." Http://www.apa.org. 7 Nov 2014. Web. 7

Chappell, Bill. "U.S. Students Slide In Global Ranking On Math, Reading, Science." NPR. NPR, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 7 Nov. 2014.