People of color, minority, and corporate America directly effected by the inadequate education in urban areas

             Society often blames the gap of achievement on the capabilities of a certain race. In the 1950s and 1960s the education system had a major concern on the achievement gap between whites and people of color, but In 1954 the supreme court declared that the racial segregation was unconstitutional and demanded the integration of schools (Brown vs. Board of Education). Studies done in 2008 and 2009 show that “the gap between affluent and low-income students has grown by forty percent since the 1960s and is now double the testing gap between black and whites” (Tavernise), so the problem is no longer an inequality of race but it is a problem of economical status or residence. This has caused society to make an unreasonable and unjust expectation that colored students will not succeed academically. This social expectation diminishes the hope and efforts of these colored people who in fact have the same intellectual capabilities as the white students living in the suburbs. They do not lack intelligence they lack resources and funding.

 Society has neglected to see this truth and placed the blame exclusively on the traditional ideology of the incapacity of people of color. This has caused a major effect in the improvement of schools in rural and urban areas where the majority of the population consist of colored people. So why is it that the San Ramon Valley district can afford to by ipad for their classrooms where as Oakland High struggles purchasing enough textbooks for their classes? According to Whitney Write’s essay The Disparities between Urban and Suburban American Education Systems: A Comparative Analysis Using Social Closure Theory, “Under-funding of urban schools is affected by funding formula including low weights for compensatory education, bilingual or English as a second language programs, and attendance-based foundation programs.” In order to get an equal education in America the funding for urban districts need to be raised to meet equal materials, resources, adequate teachers, and the improvement and building of educational facilities.

This increasing achievement gap between the poor and rich is maintaining the economic wellness of the dominant class. After the Supreme Court ruled to integrate schools in 1954, school districts began to notice the massive migration of white families in the suburbs, leaving the minorities in the urban areas. Although minorities reside in these urban areas the lack of prior education, the remaining discrimination, and the lack of well paid jobs left the minorities with low-income jobs with little to no benefits, while the people now residing in the suburbs maintained all the corporate, professional, well-paid, and insured jobs. Urban areas are home of corporate America and often symbolizes wealth and success, but for minorities these corporation symbolize a dead end, loss of hope, the struggle to survive under their economic status, and the myth of the American Dream.