Equal Access to Education in Schools to be Examined

posted on Mar 10 by Admin in the Disability News category

Earlier this week, the Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the federal government’s new goal to ensure all students have equal access and opportunity to education. In commemoration of the 45th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday”, a violent confrontation between civil rights demonstrators and state troopers, Duncan stood on historic Selma Bridge and said, “We are going to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement.”

As it stands right now, there are numerous education inequalities between black and white students, those with disabilities and those without disabilities, and those from low income families versus those from wealthy families. Often the latter in each scenario are given better resources and opportunities in terms of education. Below are some staggering statistics among students in Alabama: (numbers quoted and provided by Arne Duncan).

- At the end of high school, white students are about six times more likely to be college-ready in biology than black students, and more than four times as likely to be prepared for college algebra.

- Black students without disabilities are more than three times as likely to be expelled as white students and those with disabilities more than twice as likely to be expelled or suspended — numbers which Duncan says testify to racial gaps that are “hard to explain away by reference to the usual suspects.”

- Students from low-income families who graduate from high school scoring in the top testing quartile are no more likely to attend college than the lowest-scoring students from wealthy families.

The new system aims to be more vigilant in providing the equal access to education across the board. The current system is flawed and needs improving to ensure everyone’s civil rights are being met.