Our current educational system is strained. While time spent in the classroom is critical to a child’s education, the educational system must also include opportunities for interaction with parents and community members outside of school hours. Inequitable access to quality education puts low-income children at higher risk than those from higher-income families, but it also affects high-income students. In addition to addressing the structural conditions of our educational system, we need to address the core practices of schooling.
The current education system has failed to recognize the complexity of the characteristics of students and adapt the teaching to meet those needs. Teachers must be trained to adapt instruction to the diverse learning styles, personality traits, and abilities of students. They should be given opportunities to collaborate with peers from various fields of study and to contribute to the learning objectives of the whole. This is not a simple task. The education system needs to embrace the challenges of this new world by embracing diversity and creating opportunities for individual learning and collaboration.
Inequitable funding is a major issue. Inequal distribution of resources among school districts can result in poorer learning outcomes. Inequitable funding is also linked to low-income children’s education. Districts with higher numbers of minority students tend to receive lower funding. These schools often hire substitute teachers. Many schools with high minority enrollments rely on large class sizes or cancel courses to fill the void.
