Education

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Date

Institutional Affiliation

Introduction

Education is a catalyst of change that guarantees upward social mobility. In American society, education is seen as a tool for achieving the American dream. It is meant to equip individuals with the necessary values and skills to develop intelligence and provide financially rewarding career opportunities. Despite the importance of education in improving the quality of life, a significant portion of the American people cannot pursue higher education as it is expensive. The cost of education in America is among the highest worldwide, and it impedes families that are not wealthy enough from providing their children access to higher education. Over the years, the government has introduced various education reforms to create better education equity. America’s current reality, however, shows that these reforms have not been beneficial to every American child, and they have disregarded the economic realities of the American people. The American education system has failed in equalizing the American population and has instead resulted in an educational divide and worsened the wealth and opportunity inequalities in the country.

Access to education is tethered to the income and wealth of a family. Families with accumulated wealth and high income can provide their children with access to education. In contrast, families at the other end of this spectrum cannot fund their children’s education. Financial inequality is one of the biggest threats to education equity. Since 2001, three major educational reforms that have been in America include President Bush’s no child left behind policy, President Obama’s race to the top policy, and President Trump’s school choice policy (Ravitch, 2020). These reforms proved ineffective as they focused on promoting testing, competition, and punishment instead of restructuring the school funding system and enabling desegregation (Ravitch, 2020). Due to the failures of these reforms, States have been forced to come up with measures to address the problem. A state that has had significant success in increasing access to higher education for all its students is Florida. Florida has had significant success as its measures focus on equity, giving each student what they need.

Ways Florida Addresses Education Inequality

One of the tools that the state of Florida has used to beat the challenge of financial inequality is the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP). This program focuses on public school-going students and guarantees that all public-school students have funding and access to their educational needs and services (Florida Department of Education). This funding formula works because funds are allocated to each student that participates in the K-12 public school program. The program’s funding system is based on student participation, local property tax, student population sparsity, cost of educational programs, and district cost differential (Florida Department of Education). The main sources of funds in this program include local, state, and federal support. As 90% of the total funds are from local support, the state of Florida has made it such that if a school district has fewer local funds, the state funds are increased, and if a school district has more local funds, the state funds are reduced (OPPAGA, 2021). This measure ensures that school districts with many students from low-income families have just as much funding as school districts with many students from wealthy families. The FEFP is also designed in a way that local funding is based on property wealth and income (OPPAGA, 2021). High property wealth and income school districts contribute more local funds than low income and property wealth school districts.

To reduce the cost of completing college-level courses, Florida also implemented a policy that exempts most of its students from developmental education. Developmental education equips students with the skills and knowledge necessary to pass college-level courses. In the US, students from minority groups and low-income families make up the largest percentage of the students shuffled into the development education program (Bettinger et al., 2013). While this program intends to prepare students for post-secondary education, its effect is that it increases the drop-out rate of students as it significantly increases the semesters needed to complete the program, thus increasing the cost of education. In 2013, the state of Florida implemented statewide developmental education reforms through the senate bill 1720 (Nix et al., 2020). The reform implemented three major changes: the exemption of students from college placement tests and developmental coursework, the compression of developmental courses or the use of corequisite alternatives, and the enhancement of student advising services. Some of the advantages that this reform has enabled include a reduction in the cost of education, an increase in the number of students from low-income families that complete their coursework, and a reduction in the racial gap witnessed in Florida’s education system (Mokher et al., 2021). Overall, Florida’s developmental education reforms have helped the state attain a significant education equity level.

Conclusion

America’s education system has failed to equalize the American population as it has increased the educational divide and worsened the wealth and opportunity inequalities in the country. As financial inequality is one of the biggest challenges to education equity, there is a need for reforms and measures that best enable students from low-income families to gain access to education and educational resources. For instance, the reforms and steps taken by the state of Florida prove that effective educational reforms can better promote educational equity in the country and help close the ever-growing income and racial gap witnessed in the country.

References

Bettinger, E. P., Boatman, A., & Long, B. T. (2013). Student supports: Developmental education and other academic programs. The Future of Children, 93-115.

Nix, A. N., Jones, T. B., Brower, R. L., & Hu, S. (2020). Equality, efficiency, and developmental education reform: The impact of SB 1720 on the mission of the Florida college system. Community College Review, 48(1), 55-76.

Mokher, C. G., Park-Gaghan, T. J., & Hu, S. (2021). What happens to efficiency and equity? The cost implications of developmental education reform. Research in Higher Education, 62(2), 151-174.

Florida Department of Education. (2021). Funding for Florida School Districts. Retrieved http://www.fldoe.org/fefpOPPAGA. (2021). Florida Education Finance Program. Retrieved https://oppaga.fl.gov/ProgramSummary/BackPageDetail?programNumber=2002&backPageNumber=01Ravitch, D. (2020). The education reform movement has failed America. We need common-sense solutions that work. Time.