Current Problems with the US Public Education - Essay Example

Low-income is the source of poverty for a number of Americans today. According to (Strauss 1), the numbers of students of children, from preschool to 12th grade, that benefit from the federal free and subsided feeding have increased exponentially over the years.  Children from low-income backgrounds now dominate most of the public schools. Despite the magnitude of the problem, the federal education policy has not considered poverty to be a major challenge to the education system in the United States.

It is obvious that students find it difficult to cope with school hence ends up missing classes or are psychologically affected by the poverty levels in their homes. To emphasize the magnitude of the problem of poverty, a study by National Student Clearinghouse Research Center showed that schools with high-income students sent more students to college as opposed to those that have been sent by schools dominated by low-income students (Strauss 1). The No Child Left Behind Act is one of the major policies that give the parents a leeway to choose schools for their children.

The law allows parents to consider taking their children to schools of their choice while at the same time providing a free tutoring platform for schools that do not perform well. Safety is also captured as a major consideration in the choice of the school that the parent prefers. The law provides that both local and state school districts should provide information to the parent in order to make an informed choice of the school to take their child.