Introduction
There are several opportunities of life where people have always looked for equality among them being education. This is taken as a deceitful concept although when analyzed objectively, equality represents a natural concept employed by learners to express justice requirements that they may need to maintain within their societies. Every human being, students inclusive, has a strong belief in justice whose principles are based on the fair distribution of state resources.
In Los Angeles, education is considered as form of ‘good’ which receives substantial support through public funds. It follows that; the available financial support is distributed accordingly to every member of the society regardless of social, economic or even political differences. Acquiring equality levels in education just like in justice has a variety of facets which requires that everyone is provided with equal portions or a share that has a certain level of proportionality to learner’s deserts. A large part of current debate concerning education equality is just a reflection of previous discussions held in Athens back in 4th century.
The particular topic of discussion was on egalitarian feeling concerning education that is shared accordingly since acquisition of good education offers one better chance in life compared to what is provided to those with low education levels. In Los Angeles, inequality in the level of education is more evident than equality levels in the same area. Spring (1998 p. 36)
Inequality Due To Racial Differences in Los Angeles
Los Angeles has been listed among those regions with large populations of mixed race. This situation has had a significant effect on the distribution of education among Los Angeles residents since race has influenced admission to various institutions among them being public colleges. Cultural diversity has equally contributed to education inequality where different communities are found to incorporate their language in educational settings in form of bi-lingual education.
Great impact has been felt on the enrollment of college students especially in Los Angeles K-12 education. A wide range of disparities is encountered in the financial system of Los Angeles’ schools where students are charged differently in accordance to their race. Since the whites constitute the high classes in Los Angeles society, average calculations show that more money per student is normally spent in education within high class communities than that which is spent on students within poor and low class communities.
These inequalities in the amount of money spent in poor as well as affluent communities are transferred to the school facilities where schools attended by students from high class communities are equipped with higher quality facilities as compared to facilities found in low class communities. Salary levels as well as credential of teachers also vary across Los Angeles’ educational institutions where schools in whites’ communities that are also in the high class category are normally capable of providing good salaries to teachers.
It follows that; better and more qualified teachers are found in these schools while schools located within minority communities cannot afford to offer good salaries to teachers which makes it hard to find high credentialed teachers in those schools. “Career counselors constitute an essential part in the level of knowledge retained by students and the manner in which students conduct themselves in the community at large. Educational institutions in minority communities find it difficult to provide students with career counselors since their parents cannot afford to pay for them whereas white students are guided accordingly by career counselors who are well paid by their parents” Hewlett (1991 pp58-61).
Inequality Due To Economic Disparities
The situation where inequality levels in education are experienced is also influenced by the economic status of Los Angeles residents. Students from low income backgrounds as well as minority families are mostly affected since they are not able to enroll in “good” educational institutions. These students end up enrolling in inferior institutions whose provisions are worse compared to those from middle class backgrounds. In this case, inequality in the level of education acquired by students from different backgrounds is experienced since the students from high class backgrounds acquire education of a higher quality compared to that acquired by middle and low class level students.
This devastating situation is tackled to a certain point where policies at both the national as well as state level are formulated in order to bring a certain level of equality in acquired education. Several adjustments are made particularly on the standard of education that students should have acquired by the time they are completing their high school education. The criteria through which candidates are gauged in order to be admitted in Los Angeles colleges are considered.
Disparities are also experienced in the manner in which students perform in their tests and these disparities are normally experienced in high schools found in suburban as well as city regions. Schools where students from high income families are enrolled perform considerably better than high schools where minority and low income students are enrolled. This has revealed the existence of a strong relationship in the enrolment of minority students, test performance, income levels and parental achievement which results to inequality in levels of education. It follows that; students from low income backgrounds as well as those from minority communities are normally faced by unequal acquisition of education and this is carried on to their children in future. Saracho (2006 pp 86-89)
“The disparities resulting from the economic level of Los Angeles students’ backgrounds are also portrayed in the acquisition of high technology equipment where students from poor backgrounds are enrolled in schools that do not provide them with computer literacy since they cannot afford to buy them in the first place. Laboratory equipment, advancement of courses and books also differs greatly among educational institutions across Los Angeles” Smart (2006 p.25). Those institutions comprised by a considerably higher population of whites normally offer highly advanced courses which is accompanied by advanced laboratory equipment. This result to inequality in the quality of educational courses provided to minority students as compared to that which is provided to white students.
Practical Example of Inequality Levels in Los Angeles High Schools and Universities
Very few Los Angeles communities have demonstrated efforts to achieve integration of the diverse races found in the Los Angeles society. However, some school administrators have raised some concern which is demonstrated in their efforts to correct segregation situation experienced in most of Los Angeles Schools. A few schools are able to integrate constituent races found in these schools but a closer look has revealed that integration is completely achieved.
This is because some level of segregation and discrimination is incorporated in the specific educational institutions to a level that racial division still reigns within their borders. Studies have shown that about forty percent of population of students in individual Los Angles schools is represented by whites, ten percent is represented by Latinos, and another forty percent is represented by African Americans while Asian Americans take up the remaining ten percent. This structure of the representation of different races found in Los Angeles schools has had a very great effect on the manner in which education is provided to the individual races within the schools.
Racial diversities correspond to differences in social classes where Asian Americans, African Americans as well as Latinos are largely represented in the low social class category while whites enjoy a high representation in the high social class category. All these disintegration levels are found within individual Los Angeles schools despite the fact that they appear quite diversified and united from an outside view.
All school aspects receive a certain share of racial fragmentation which is later depicted in the quality and level of education acquired by students. Substantial efforts employed in order to bring the situation to control may not achieve much success since racial fragmentation as well as discrimination appears to be deeply rooted in the Los Angeles educational situation. Mitzel (2008 pp16-19)
An example of similar efforts took place in early nineteen seventies where high schools in Los Angels joined with other United States’ high schools in a campaign dabbed ‘the movement of black nationalists’. During this campaign, students of the African American origin demanded that a department where studies concerning African Americans and their culture established in individual schools in order to provide a wide range of awareness about African Americans. This practice is based on the belief that varying educational approaches to white students as well as black students are equally necessary.
The resultant effect of this particular practice is the establishment of different high schools in which educational experience that is characterized by cultural definitions is provided to both white as well as black students. The same department that had initiated this program decided to dissolve it after realizing that it only served to increase inequality in the level of education acquired by different racial communities residing in Los Angeles in particular.
Although the different cultural studies were dissolved, underlying beliefs that had resulted to schools that were divided across racial backgrounds were still under substantial influence in Los Angeles schools. Several schools including Berkeley school became two different schools which were located in one facility. One school constituted of a college for the elites where the highest population that was served was basically white students who came from affluent neighborhoods.
On the other hand, a completely different innercity school was found to serve students who were from disadvantaged communities and they were mostly represented by Latinos and African Americans. Officially, Berkeley was a single school with similar faculties, similar football teams and one principle. The situation was different for students as well as other staff members who worked in the school as they had a direct experience of fragmentation that was in control. Patten (2007 p. 93)
Current studies have shown that these diversities are still evident in the entire Los Angeles schools where students from the white communities are largely represented in courses characterized by a great collection of honors electives, science and advanced mathematics courses. Courses in which foreign languages are taught are also provided to white students more than they are offered to minority students. On the other hand, Latino, Asian Americans as well as African American students are offered remedial courses which have less demand in the corporate world leaving white students at a greater advantage as compared to minority students. Ginsburg (2003 p.49-54)
Remedial Efforts
More than forty years have passed since Brown employed significant efforts to bring segregation experienced in educational levels to an end. This was followed by a large number of court orders which was accompanied by involvement of federal troops to practically control the situation. “Battles between different races have also been encountered all with a common objective of maintaining racial integration among public schools particularly those found in the largely diversified society of Los Angeles. Very little is achieved and on the contrary more segregation is experienced today than it was the situation twenty five years ago” Loh (2004 p. 27).
However, more competent ways through which this situation of inequality is controlled are continually employed in Los Angeles schools to test their potential in bringing segregation to an end.
Conclusion
Education levels in Los Angeles schools and society as a whole is unequally represented and race as well as economic disparities plays the largest part in this fragmentation. White students are found to benefit from higher quality education while minority students get the less demanded courses which white students do not need.
Economic disparities contribution is experienced when students from minority backgrounds are unable to afford enough money in order to secure admission in schools that provide high quality education as their charges are considerably higher. In contrast, most of white students come from affluent families and they are able to join more expensive schools that provide high quality education. The resultant effect of these disparities if strongly evident in the varying quality of education acquired by Los Angeles students which is later transferred to general social life where whites are considerably advantaged. Ginsburg (2003 p. 55)
References
Ginsburg M. Limitations and possibilities of dialogue among researchers, policy makers, and practitioners: Routledge, 2003 pp 49-55.
Hewlett S. When the bough breaks; the cost of neglecting our children: Basic Books, 1991. pp. 58-61.
Loh W. Social research in the judicial process: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004. pp. 27.
Mitzel H. Educational research: the University of Michigan, 2008. pp. 16-19.
Patten M. Educational and psychological research: University of Michigan, 2007. p.93.
Saracho O. Research on the Education of Children: Routledge, 2006. pp. 86-89.
Smart J. Higher Education; Theory and Research: Springer, 2006. p. 25.
Spring J. American education; inequality savages: McGraw-Hill, 1998. pp 36.