Oliver Pringle
Professor John Schultz
Ethics 2050
22 April 2014
Closing the Gaps in Modern Education The city of Philadelphia has one of the most racially segregated school systems in the United States with the largest performance gap between black and white students nationwide. “Philadelphia’s black population, and particularly its affluent black population, lives in much poorer neighborhoods than comparable whites because they are so highly segregated by race” (Denvir). The average black elementary school student in Philadelphia is reading at the 21st percentile, while his white counterpart is reading at much higher 66th percentile. The disparity experienced within the public education of Philadelphia children is caused by rampant segregation within the school system itself. Through my own experience, as well as the writings of the renowned psychologist Franz Fanon and philosopher Paulo Freire, I have found that the solution to the public education problem begins with a narrowing of the gaps between the haves and the have-nots. The Citypaper article written by Daniel Denvir unearthed a number of unbelievable disparities between the black and white students within the Philadelphia education system. Studies indicate that “Philadelphia blacks are exposed to poverty at a rate nearly three times higher than whites. The average black person in the Philly area lives in a neighborhood with a 24.8% poverty rate, compared to just 8.4% for whites. Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis and Detroit follow close behind” (Denvir). The location within the greater Philadelphia area is the cause for the heightened exposure to poverty. North Philly is primarily black and poverty-stricken, while the Main Line is primarily white and affluent. At the conclusion of the study, Logan found that the only way for the education system in America to improve is to address the