The conclusion of Chapter 8 posed a very thought provoking hypothesis for me. It said, “Why have public schools in the United States become a central welfare agency for attempting to solve problems of poverty, nutrition, health, and a host of other problems? The chapter illustrates these issues in full detail and the conclusion basically compares the public school system to that of a welfare agency.
The education system, arguably the most important growth area of our society should not even be thought of as a welfare system. It should be characterized by the purpose of its existence. The first initiative of the NAACP was to abolish segregation. Education is what every parent wants for their kids. They do not want welfare.
We need to rethink the goals of our education system. Once they were a place for our kids to go during the day, a place that provided service needs for our population’s youngest. There should be a social function to schools but the focus must be on education and once everyone has that clear in the public school system, the decisions will be made off of that focus. Where should money go? Certainly not toward more and more hallway security but more and more towards new books and better teachers.
Migration only caused problems in terms of segregation and discrimination when it could have diversified our schooling system and opened the eyes and minds of many Americans to the reality of the world. Of course, we had our own agenda and that was keeping these races out of our public schools. We shot ourself in the foot. Slowed ourselves down. Education has to be efficiently managed ina equal fashion for the benefit of all young Americans. it is a privlege.
