Access of Quality Education: The End Poverty Cycle - Research Paper Example

?Access to Quality Education: The end Poverty cycle The research paper on Hearts & minds official website reveals that nearly 15 million children i.e. approximately one fourth of the total child population is living below the official poverty line ("Hearts & Minds "). The debates about poverty and its consequences are getting increasing attention from the authorities, law regulators, politicians, social welfare organizations, policymakers and the public at large. The reasons behind such importance given to the issues of poverty are the unhealthy, inconsistent and unwelcoming consequences of poverty. These consequences affect all areas from the social, psychological, mental and physical health to access quality food, shelter and other basic necessities for people’s lives. Researchers have long been struggling to find out the factors which may help in the reduction of the poverty levels prevailing in the US. This paper aims to analyze education as a factor which may impact poverty levels significantly. The paper, hence, provides a discussion on access to Education in the US as the most important factor needed to end the cycle of poverty for children. It is no longer a mystery that education forms the basis of good quality life and access to high level education, consistent income, access to health, accommodation and overall improvement in the standards of living. The public of United States is of the opinion that access to education is the right of all citizens and it helps in curbing the increasing problems of poverty and inequalities of the society. Their expectations on the access of high quality education to all the citizens may or may not be answered by the government officials due to inadequacy of resources or the balance between advantages and disadvantages that investments in education quality and its availability may bring in. In a democratic society like America, it is highly important to address and resolve issues which are affecting the life expectancy and quality of people’s lives in order to provide equal opportunities of development and growth. Since education is an element which directly affects the lives of the people and in turn affects the society, it has become important for the governmental authorities to take appropriate action in order to address this issue more clearly. The costs related to educational interventions are high. Firstly, introduction of low-cost or free educational interventions would increase the demand of educational resources and space. This increase in demand would call for an active plan to boost up the supply of educational facilities. This alone requires a heavy investment to fulfill the needs of American citizens who could not afford education due to scarce resources and lack of educational facilities available. In order to meet the demands of new students, there will be an additional requirement of teachers to appropriately meet the expectations of the people. The increase in demand of teachers would also require investment in order to increase the salaries or higher new staff to aid the learning process. The resources including learning materials, books, stationary and other things form a considerable part of investment required by such interventions. These costs related to the promotional interventions for education require closer attention to understand the economic consequences on the U.S. The administrative facilities for the additional educational services would also form a major investment area (Sykes et al., 2009 pp. 196-205). All these costs related to the interventions which may be proposed will need to be funded by governmental funds. The opportunity cost of these funds to be used in the educational interventions may be an investment in any other government project like setting up an industry or crime reduction strategies or any other public issue intervention. The estimates reveal that approximately half a trillion dollars are yearly spent on social and economic cost related to child poverty (Center for American Progress, 2007). The opposition believes that ignorance to interventions may create a more devastating situation and will end up creating costly consequences on the society which will be more severe than the costs related to the introduction of educational interventions for children. Availability of high quality education for the U.S. children is not only beneficial for their individualistic lifestyle but also has positive outcomes for the taxpayers and the society. The unavailability of educational services result in severe public and social costs like inadequate income levels, low economic development, decreased tax revenues and increased public services costs including healthcare facilities, increased crime rates and financial dependence on government funds. Hence, the group favoring educational interventions and large investments by the government in this area believe that education facilities and equality in educational field is not only beneficial for the individuals but is also advantageous for the government, tax collectors, economic development of the country and society as a whole in terms of reduced crimes, life expectancy and independence of individuals. It is important to understand how America has gotten into the dire situation of having so many impoverished children. There are certain theories and models which are quite successful in answering this query. The economic resource model reveals that the continuing poverty trends from parents find its roots to the life of children. According to this model lack of financial resources and time reduce the chances of parents’ investment in children’s education. This lack of education is translated by poor-paying jobs or unemployment in future of those children. The impoverished parents may not be able to find residence where quality education is available or where job networks are strong. The non-economic resources model, however, defines noneconomic factors to be detrimental to children’s education and future. For instance, less educated impoverished parents are less likely to encourage educational environment in their houses. The psychological effects of poverty on poor parents or single parents also affect the chances of their children’s educational accessibility (Iceland 2006, p. 50). The structural model explains the increase in poverty due to prevalent risks associated with the labor market conditions, rate of immigrations, discriminations, class distribution and inequalities of resources on other grounds. All these models directly or indirectly relate to the problem of poverty increasing due to lack of resources and in turn lack of educational facilities available to people (Iceland 2006, p. 51). Owing to the importance of education in the aim to reduce poverty, there have been a number of interventions proposed and exercised by governments and local authorities. Some of these interventions include Perry preschool program, First Things First, Class size reduction, Chicago child-parent center program and Teacher salary increase. The results of Perry preschool program is the most efficient in terms of increasing the number of high school graduated by 19 per 100 admissions. On the other hand, Teacher salary increase was less efficient in terms of increased graduates at 5 new graduates per 100 students. Whatever the size of increase is, the interventions are successful in increasing the number of new graduates (Levin 206, pp.4-6). In order to increase educational facilities, NCLB act generally stresses on developing American schools to a standard in which all students are given equal opportunities. As in the act it states "close the achievement gap between high- and low-performing children, especially the achievement gaps between minority and non-minority students, and between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers." This clearly reflects that NCLB aims to offer reasonable and equivalent opportunities to the students so that they can attain education of high standards. One of the most important terms of NCLB is the obligation that the states should set values in the field of education and should perform yearly evaluation of schools to check the progress of the school and analyze if the schools have been successful in improving the student's educational achievements. NCLB gives funds for the training of teachers; it provides special support to students who face difficulties with reading and supports immigrants and homeless students. Overall NCLB holds the states, districts and the schools to take accountability of the student's achievements. States are entitled to report the progress of students who suffer from problems like reading and writing. They are also directed to report about the students who are from different ethnic groups and who belong to families of low income (Panzica 2008). These interventions, acts and struggles of the U.S. government are of particular importance in curbing the issues of inequalities and poverty by providing the ease of educational facilities. Education helps in a sustained environment which reflects a brighter future of the country. Education provides an independent opportunity to every individual of the society to find the best ways of using the qualifications and resources available to them in the best way they can. The sustainable development and progress in individual’s position in the society is measured by the increase in income and expenditures made. The income levels rise as the individuals manage to acquire graduation and higher level education from their childhood. Their development and growth in their relevant fields affirms their future prospects and income levels. Education for all or universal education plans by government hence ensure income and employment for every individual. These employment opportunities are built through the economic, industrial and business market growth of a country. Thus, education brings prosperity for individuals, society and the country as a whole. The reduction in unemployment results in the reduction of crime rates, robberies, hate crimes and threats to security of people. The equality in educational field reduces the chaos in the society which occurs due to discriminatory behaviors or laws which still prevail in many parts of the world today. The effects of poverty on children are detrimental. Research reveals that child poverty leads to lesser chances of poor children to complete graduation from high school. The statistics of 2007 reveal that high-income and financially sound children (i.e. around 39%) are more efficient in reading and performing well in academic assessments as compared to 15% of low-income or impoverished eighth grade pupils (NCES 2007). The opponents believe that costs related to implement educational policies which motivate equality in education are crucial to be discussed. However, the benefits that such policies and educational facilities may bring are beyond economic advantages but comprise of social, psychological, mental, physical and national advantages. A universal education policy may bring an end to the racial, social, gendered, ethnic and religious discrimination. This will in turn produce a peaceful and sound society where everyone has the share in equality and opportunities. Hence, in conclusion, we can say that such initiatives in order to reduce child poverty have long term benefits for the society as a whole. These benefits have effects beyond the economic area of life and include social, cultural, psychological, health and other benefits for every individual and these benefits are obviously greater than the related costs. References Iceland, John. Poverty in America: A Handbook. Berkeley: University of California press, 2006. Print. Levin, Henry. The Costs and Benefits of an Excellent Education for All of America's Children. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University, 2006. Print. Minds, Hearts &. "Children in Poverty America's Ongoing War." Hearts & Minds. Hearts and Minds Network, NA. Web. 4 Mar 2011. . Panzica, S. E. (2008). Standards-based reform and No Child Left Behind: their effects on kindergarten practices. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ball State University, 2008. Sykes, Gary, Barbara L. Schneider, David N. Plank, and Timothy G. Ford. Handbook of Education Policy Research. New York: Routledge, 2009. Print. The Economic Costs of Poverty in the United States: Subsequent Effects of Children Growing Up Poor. Washington: Center for American Progress, 2007. Print. US Department of Education, National Assessment of Educational Progress, “The Nation’s Report Card Reading 2007,” Institute of Education Sciences, NCES 2007–496, retrieved at: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/main2007/2007496.pdf Read More