Editing Education reform (section)

=== Education inequalities facing students of color ===
Another factor to consider in education reform is that of equity and access. Contemporary issues in the United States regarding education faces a history of inequalities that come with consequences for education attainment across different social groups. For example, students of color often attend underfunded schools, have less access to advanced classes, and face higher suspension rates, which all impact their chances of graduating and going to college.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foundation |first=The Annie E. Casey |date=2024-09-23 |title=Racial Inequality in Education |url=https://www.aecf.org/blog/racial-inequality-in-education?msclkid=d99cf1992a9d124b6bf2966e7f0bb267&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Blog%2025&utm_term=Statistics%20in%20Education&utm_content=Racial%20Inequality%20in%20Education |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=The Annie E. Casey Foundation |language=en}}</ref>

==== Racial and socioeconomic class segregation ====
A history of racial, and subsequently class, segregation in the U.S. resulted from practices of law.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book|last=Rothstein|first=Richard|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/959808903|title=The color of law: a forgotten history of how our government segregated America|date=2017|publisher=National Geographic Books |isbn=978-1-63149-285-3|language=English|oclc=959808903}}</ref> [[Residential segregation in the United States|Residential segregation]] is a direct result of twentieth century policies that separated by race using zoning and redlining practices, in addition to other housing policies, whose effects continue to endure in the United States.<ref name=":03" /> These neighborhoods that have been segregated de jure—by force of purposeful public policy at the federal, state, and local levels—disadvantage people of color as students must attend school near their homes.<ref name=":03" /><ref name=":33">{{Cite web|title=Why Our Schools Are Segregated|url=https://www.epi.org/blog/schools-segregated/|access-date=2021-05-13|website=Economic Policy Institute|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":42">{{Cite web|title=The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult|url=https://www.epi.org/publication/the-racial-achievement-gap-segregated-schools-and-segregated-neighborhoods-a-constitutional-insult/|access-date=2021-05-13|website=Economic Policy Institute|language=en-US}}</ref>

With the inception of the New Deal between 1933 and 1939, and during and following World War II, federally funded public housing was explicitly racially segregated by the local government in conjunction with federal policies through projects that were designated for Whites or Black Americans in the South, Northeast, Midwest, and West.<ref name=":5">{{Citation|last=HIRSCH|first=ARNOLD R.|title=Choosing Segregation|date=2000-08-22|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/j.ctv14gpbjz.18|work=From Tenements to the Taylor Homes|pages=206–225|publisher=Penn State University Press|doi=10.5325/j.ctv14gpbjz.18|isbn=978-0-271-07215-9|access-date=2021-05-13|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Following an ease on the housing shortage post-World War II, the federal government subsidized the relocation of Whites to suburbs.<ref name=":33" /><ref name=":42" /> The Federal Housing and Veterans Administration constructed such developments on the East Coast in towns like Levittown on Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Levittowns of the United States|url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-levittowns-of-the-united-states.html|access-date=2021-05-13|website=WorldAtlas|date=29 May 2017|language=en-US}}</ref> On the West Coast, there was Panorama City, Lakewood, Westlake, and Seattle suburbs developed by Bertha and William Boeing.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Racial Restrictive Covenants: Enforcing Neighborhood Segregation in Seattle - Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project|url=http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/covenants_report.htm|access-date=2021-05-13|website=depts.washington.edu}}</ref> As White families left for the suburbs, Black families remained in public housing and were explicitly placed in Black neighborhoods.<ref name=":42"/> Policies such as public housing director, Harold Ickes', "neighborhood composition rule" maintained this segregation by establishing that public housing must not interfere with pre-existing racial compositions of neighborhoods.<ref name=":5" /> Federal loan guarantees were given to builders who adhered to the condition that no sales were made to Black families and each deed prohibited re-sales to Black families, what the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) described as an "incompatible racial element".<ref>FHA (Federal Housing Administration) (1938). ''Underwriting manual: Underwriting and valuation procedure under Title II of the National Housing Act''. Excerpts in J. M. Thomas & M. Ritzdorf (Eds.). (1997). ''Urban planning and the African American community: In the shadows'' (pp. 282–284)''.'' Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.</ref> In addition, banks and savings intuitions refused loans to Black families in White suburbs and Black families in Black neighborhoods.<ref>USCCR (United States Commission on Civil Rights) (1961). ''Book 4:'' ''Housing: 1961 Commission on Civil Rights report.'' Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/cr11961bk4.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202181053/http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/cr11961bk4.pdf |date=2017-02-02 }}</ref> In the mid-twentieth century, urban renewal programs forced low-income black residents to reside in places farther from universities, hospitals, or business districts and relocation options consisted of public housing high-rises and ghettos.<ref name=":42" /><ref name=":5" />

This history of de jure segregation has impacted resource allocation for public education in the United States, with schools continuing to be segregated by race and class. Low-income White students are more likely than Black students to be integrated into middle-class neighborhoods and less likely to attend schools with other predominantly disadvantaged students.<ref name=":13">{{Cite web|title=The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult|url=https://www.epi.org/publication/the-racial-achievement-gap-segregated-schools-and-segregated-neighborhoods-a-constitutional-insult/|access-date=2021-04-26|website=Economic Policy Institute|language=en-US}}</ref> Students of color disproportionately attend underfunded schools and Title I schools in environments entrenched in environmental pollution and stagnant economic mobility with limited access to college readiness resources.<ref name=":73">{{Cite journal|last1=Blanchett|first1=Wanda J.|last2=Mumford|first2=Vincent|last3=Beachum|first3=Floyd|date=2005-03-01|title=Urban School Failure and Disproportionality in a Post-Brown Era: Benign Neglect of the Constitutional Rights of Students of Color|url=https://doi.org/10.1177/07419325050260020201|journal=Remedial and Special Education|language=en|volume=26|issue=2|pages=70–81|doi=10.1177/07419325050260020201|s2cid=145367875|issn=0741-9325|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name=":13" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite web|last=Gustafsson-Wright|first=Tamar Manuelyan Atinc and Emily|date=2013-11-25|title=Early Childhood Development: the Promise, the Problem, and the Path Forward|url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/early-childhood-development-the-promise-the-problem-and-the-path-forward/|access-date=2021-04-26|website=Brookings|language=en-US}}</ref> According to research, schools attended by primarily Hispanic or African American students often have high turnover of teaching staff and are labeled high-poverty schools, in addition to having limited educational specialists, less available extracurricular opportunities,  greater numbers of provisionally licensed teachers, little access to technology, and buildings that are not well maintained.<ref name=":73" /> With this segregation, more local property tax is allocated to wealthier communities and public schools' dependence on local property taxes has led to large disparities in funding between neighboring districts.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Harris|first=Adam|date=2019-08-01|title=The Whiter, Richer School District Right Next Door|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/08/segregated-school-districts-trapped-their-borders/595318/|access-date=2021-04-26|website=The Atlantic|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Week 1: Why America's Schools Have A Money Problem|url=https://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem|access-date=2021-05-14|newspaper=NPR.org|language=en}}</ref> The top 10% of wealthiest school districts spend approximately ten times more per student than the poorest 10% of school districts.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Smedley|first1=Brian D.|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223640/|title=Inequality in Teaching and Schooling: How Opportunity Is Rationed to Students of Color in America|last2=Stith|first2=Adrienne Y.|last3=Colburn|first3=Lois|last4=Evans|first4=Clyde H.|last5=Medicine (US)|first5=Institute of|date=2001|publisher=National Academies Press (US)|language=en}}</ref>

==== Racial wealth gap ====
This history of racial and socioeconomic class segregation in the U.S. has manifested into a racial wealth divide.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Magazine|first=Contexts|title=Disrupting the Racial Wealth Gap - Contexts|url=https://contexts.org/articles/disrupting-the-racial-wealth-gap/|access-date=2021-04-26|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Perry|first=Rashawn Ray and Andre M.|date=2020-04-15|title=Why we need reparations for Black Americans|url=https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/bigideas/why-we-need-reparations-for-black-americans/|access-date=2021-04-26|website=Brookings|language=en-US}}</ref> With this history of geographic and economic segregation, trends illustrate a racial wealth gap that has impacted educational outcomes and its concomitant economic gains for minorities.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Chetty|first1=Raj|last2=Hendren|first2=Nathaniel|last3=Kline|first3=Patrick|last4=Saez|first4=Emmanuel|date=2014-11-01|title=Where is the land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States *|journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics|volume=129|issue=4|pages=1553–1623|doi=10.1093/qje/qju022|issn=0033-5533|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-01-09|title=Trends in U.S. income and wealth inequality|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/|access-date=2021-04-26|website=Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=What We Get Wrong About Closing the Racial Wealth Gap – The Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity|work=The Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University - Advancing social equity via research, education, and policy. |date=7 April 2018 |url=https://socialequity.duke.edu/portfolio-item/what-we-get-wrong-about-closing-the-racial-wealth-gap/|access-date=2021-04-26|language=en-US}}</ref> Wealth or net worth—the difference between gross assets and debt—is a stock of financial resources and a significant indicator of financial security that offers a more complete measure of household capability and functioning than income.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Melany De La Cruz-Viesca|last2=Paul M. Ong|last3=Andre Comandon|last4=William A. Darity Jr. |last5=Darrick Hamilton|date=2018|title=Fifty Years After the Kerner Commission Report: Place, Housing, and Racial Wealth Inequality in Los Angeles|journal=RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences|volume=4|issue=6|pages=160|doi=10.7758/rsf.2018.4.6.08|issn=2377-8253|doi-access=free}}</ref> Within the same income bracket, the chance of completing college differs for White and Black students. Nationally, White students are at least 11% more likely to complete college across all four income groups.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last1=Jones|first1=Tiffany|url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED603265|title=Hard Truths: Why Only Race-Conscious Policies Can Fix Racism in Higher Education|last2=Nichols|first2=Andrew Howard|date=January 2020 |publisher=Education Trust|language=en}}</ref> Intergenerational wealth is another result of this history, with White college-educated families three times as likely as Black families to get an inheritance of $10,000 or more.<ref name=":22" /> 10.6% of White children from low-income backgrounds and 2.5% of Black children from low-income backgrounds reach the top 20% of income distribution as adults. Less than 10% of Black children from low-income backgrounds reach the top 40%.<ref name=":22" />

==== Access to early childhood education ====
These disadvantages facing students of color are apparent early on in early childhood education. By the age of five, children of color are impacted by opportunity gaps indicated by poverty, school readiness gap, segregated low-income neighborhoods, implicit bias, and inequalities within the justice system as Hispanic and African American boys account for as much as 60% of total prisoners within the incarceration population.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web|title=Unequal Access: Barriers to Early Childhood Education for Boys of Color|url=https://www.childcareaware.org/boysofcolor/?lang=es/|access-date=2021-05-14|website=Child Care Aware® of America|language=en-US}}</ref> These populations are also more likely to experience [[adverse childhood experiences]] (ACEs).<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-02-04|title=Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)|url=https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/index.html|access-date=2021-05-14|website=www.cdc.gov|language=en-us}}</ref><ref name=":6" />

High-quality early care and education are less accessible to children of color, particularly African American preschoolers as findings from the National Center for Education Statistics show that in 2013, 40% of Hispanic and 36% White children were enrolled in learning center-based classrooms rated as high, while 25% of African American children were enrolled in these programs. 15% of African American children attended low ranking center-based classrooms. In home-based settings, 30% of White children and over 50% of Hispanic and African American children attended low rated programs.<ref name=":8" />