Funding Inequity
By tying education money to standardized test scores, federal policy keeps adequate funding out of the reach of students who demonstrate the most need (some students even have to take out short-term loans to cover their financial expenses. This is especially common in San Jose). While White, middle-class students flourish in state-of-the-art facilities with advanced learning tools and the most experienced teachers, poor Black and Latino youth across town wither away in overcrowded classrooms with broken technology, outdated textbooks, and educators who aren’t certified.
School-to-Prison Pipeline
Extreme discipline policies and practices have made schools direct pipelines to prison for hundreds of thousands of young people of color. Due to implicit bias and cultural unfamiliarity, discipline policies are often applied inconsistently and students of color are punished more harshly than White students for the same behavior. Federal data shows Black youth are more than three times as likely than White youth to be suspended from school. Black and Latino students account for approximately 70% of school-based arrests nationwide.
Mass School Closures
Fueled by federal school improvement grants, cities across the nation are closing schools in low-income and Black neighborhoods, disproportionately robbing these students of equitable access to education and denying them the opportunity to reach their full potential. Young people displaced from schools are forced to travel unfamiliar routes to attend schools in neighborhoods that don’t want them there. What’s worse, their new schools often perform just as poorly as the ones they came from.
