Inequality in the Education System

Attending a good school and getting a good education is a very important part of some one’s life. Along with attending a good school it is also important to make sure that you get the entire right course need and have the resources to do well. My experience from middle school and high school were in a way different from each other. In middle school I was not involved in any programs and most of the time it was really hard to get in to see my counselor. Not being able to see my counselor made it pretty hard to know whether I was on the right track or not to be prepared for high school. Also most of the classes that I was in were overcrowded and most of the time the teacher could not help all of us with questions we might have. Also none of the classes that I was in were honor. After a while I started to wonder if it was hard for everyone. I started to ask my friends how their classes were going, many of them said the same as mine. I had some friends that were White and when I asked them they said their classes were not overcrowded. They also mentioned that their counselor had told them to join AVID that would help them start getting ready for high school and college.  When arriving into high school I had a different experience thanks to family members. They had told me to join programs such as Puente and Upward Bound. Puente was a program for Latino students, which helped them stay on the right track in education. Being in this program was very beneficial to me. I was able to get in to see my counselor when I need to. He made sure that I was taking all the right courses and had all the resources I needed to graduate. He also told me that if i wanted i cold enroll in honors classes because he believed it would look better for colleges and that I had good grades to do so. Upward bound was also another program that I got involved. It was not a school program but it also helped me with my education. In upward bound it was as if I had an extra counselor to advise me what route to take with school in order to get to college. They helped me with applications and also with attaining resources that I could not get sometimes at school. Having friends that were not in these programs made me see the difference. Most of them were struggling trying to see their counselors to make sure they were getting all the classes they needed. Also when it came to applying to colleges most of them were having a hard time applying. Being in these programs allowed me to receive the same resources that were giving to white students and I did not have to struggle or have lack of resources as my friends that were the same race as me. 

According to the Race and Racism by Tanya Golash-Boza in one of the chapters it talks about education and the inequality that is involved. The book mentions, “Education is meant to be the great equalizer.” Many of the times education is seen as being fair to every one no matter what race you are from. It is seen as equal because it is what is supposed to help someone move up in society. The chapter in the book talks about how in the past schools was segregated between whites and non-whites. Laws were then passed to unsegregate them but it still didn’t mean that everyone was getting an equal education. Many of the schools even though allowing other races would give better resources to the white students because they believed they were the ones that worked harder to get good grades and deserved them. The inequality in schools and lack of resources to some races sometimes lead them to not getting any higher education. The inequality in schools in a way still goes on today. The book chapter shows that out of Hispanics 25 years and older only 13% are likely to get a Bachelors degree or higher and 17.7% of Blacks 25 years and older get a Bachelor compared to 29.3% of Whites. Even though education is seen as equal it is not many of the times Hispanics, Blacks, and other races don’t receive the same resources as Whites. This leads them to not getting very far in the future.