...Brandon Olmos Cooper Comm 15 Refutation 9 October 2014 Vouchers in the School System The discussion of charter schools and vouchers is an unfolding debate that is currently being argued in places from small school board meetings to high official places of power such as the Supreme Court. Both charter schools and school voucher programs are, all together, referred to as “school choice” initiatives, in which they allow parents to choose educational facility or options for their children that are outside of the normal public school system. If granted, a school voucher program gives parents a certificate that is used to pay for the education at a school of their choice, rather than the public school to which they are assigned to by their designated...
Words: 1287 - Pages: 6
...The role of education can be seen to provide pupils with the curriculum and hidden curriculum; teaching skills that will prepare them physically, mentally and socially for the world of work in later life. There are two main views on the role of education; the Marxist and Functionalists who take different approaches to this area. Interactionists have a view on this topic, but not an extremely controversial one, with large grounds for debate. As an overview, Marxists see education as an unequal and corrupt system which recreates class inequality, whereas Functionalists take more positive views, arguing it prepares children for the world of work and helps them to develop their personal talents, discover who they are, and where they would best fit into societies workforce. However the new right view believe that the current education system isn’t functioning because it is run by the state. In state education systems, politicians use their powers to influence what children should study. For example they encourage compulsory studying of history and also they chose what kind of school we should have ignoring the needs of individuals. This is using the ‘one size fits all’ rule leaving the consumers with no say or choice. Therefore some schools run inefficiently leading to a waste of money as they get poor results. This lowers the standards of achievement for children, which may lead to a less qualified workforce therefore the country’s economy in the future, will be a less prosperous...
Words: 693 - Pages: 3
...Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs Copyright 2005 (revised 2010) StudentNewsDaily.com We all want the same things in life. We want freedom; we want the chance for prosperity; we want as few people suffering as possible; we want healthy children; we want to have crime-free streets. The argument is how to achieve them… Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all. It is the duty of the government to alleviate social ills and to protect civil liberties and individual and human rights. Believe the role of the government should be to guarantee that no one is in need. Liberal policies generally emphasize the need for the government to solve problems. Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional American values and a strong national defense. Believe the role of government should be to provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals. Conservative policies generally emphasize empowerment of the individual to solve problems. NOTE: The terms “left” and “right” define opposite ends of the political spectrum. In the United States, liberals are referred to as the left or left-wing and conservatives are referred to as the right or right-wing. On the U.S. political map, blue represents the Democratic Party (which generally upholds liberal principles) and red represents the Republican party (which generally upholds conservative principles). THE ISSUES: ...
Words: 1071 - Pages: 5
...1. I feel as if the over-arching goal of education policy makers in developed nations is to maintain economic prosperity in the face of globalization and emerging countries, and to do so at an inexpensive cost. In addition to this, I feel like another goal would be to provide education for everyone. Having this equal opportunity gives citizens the education that is required to succeed and give back to the economy for years to come. 2. In developing nations, the goals of education policy essentially fall under the umbrella of “social stability’. This includes building a national culture that leans towards a democratic ethos, as opposed to hyper-nationalism of authoritarianism. They would also like to enhance their economic development by raising their current low value production, to high value. They’d also like to increase human capital and overall health by lowering infant mortality rates, fertility rates, and by slowing population growth. Lastly, they wish to resolve societal tensions and improve social outcomes, in general. This differs from already developed nations because they are trying to build prosperity and infrastructure after years of being an under-developed country. They’re essentially trying to make a “come back” when already developed nations are established, and primarily concerned with maintaining prosperity and infrastructure. 3. Neoliberalism is the philosophy that advocates support for economic liberalizations, free trade, and enhances the role of modern...
Words: 709 - Pages: 3
...Before I can start to write about Equal Opportunity and Education I must first define Equal Opportunity. Equal Opportunity is a right supposedly guaranteed by both federal and many state laws against any discrimination in employment, education, housing or credit rights due to a person’s race, color, sex (or sometimes sexual orientation), religion, national origin, age or handicap. The United States has had a long and rough road to equal opportunity in education. During the colonial era, only boys from wealthy families were given the opportunity for a formal education, while girls from wealthy families were educated by governess. Wealthy planters home schooled their boys. During this era, girls were educated in the basic subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic just enough for them to read and understand their Bible and take care of the household accounts. From the beginning of the nation through and just past the Civil War, white men were the predominant people for educational opportunity. Fewer women went to college, and those who did were talked into becoming nurses, teachers, artists, or other jobs considered at the time to be suitable for women. One must be reminded that during this time, the role of women in society was to raise children and attend to the household. Women who did not get married were persuaded into secretarial positions, nursing, or teaching. This was the view of women in this era. Minorities, such as African Americans and immigrants, were worse...
Words: 1085 - Pages: 5
...Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (1973) Historical Setting After Civil Rights success in the 1960’s, many of the United States underrepresented citizenry such as minorities and poor searched for equality through the Constitution. In San Antonio, Texas, citizens found that the school finance system was unjust and filed suit under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Federal District Court found that the Texas school finance system violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The State appealed to the Supreme Court. Case Summary San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973) argued that education was a “fundamental right” implied in the Constitution and that poor Hispanic families were being treated as a “suspect class” due to financial disparities between wealthy and poor school districts. The argument was that this inequality of funding between school district’s violated the Equal Protection Clause. The State contended that education was not an Federal enumerated power, therefore it was reserved to the State and that included financial decisions. Court’s Decision The Court found in a 5-4 ruling that this was not a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because education is not a guarantee...
Words: 1404 - Pages: 6
...general terms. What issues does it raise? -This documentary analyzes the failures of the American public education system by following several students as they strive to be accepted into a charter school. The film's title is based on an interview with Geoffrey Canada wherein he recounts being told (as a child) by his mother that Superman was not real, and how he was frightened because there was nobody to save him. 2) What do you see as the main purpose of the documentary? Waiting For "Superman" is an inside look at the problems with education in America. The film is extremely eye-opening, showing just how bad a state most of our education systems are in. They clearly illustrate that no matter the area, teachers are failing America's youth at an alarming rate. I found the film to be very biased though, as it only points out what's wrong with the system, and fails to mention any of the positives that still exist in education. It also fails to offer solutions for the problems. Guggenheim throws lots of facts and figures at us and repeats the same themes. It gets to a point where he's just beating us over the head with the same concepts. Many people saw this as an inspirational call to action, but me, I saw it as a guy complaining. Honestly, if you can't offer up a solution than why present the problem? I'm pretty sure that almost everyone in America knows how bad education has gotten, even if they don't have the exact figures in front of them 3) What are the major...
Words: 851 - Pages: 4
...perspectives and ideologies. The Southern Manifesto of 1956 was a letter signed by ninety-six southern members of the Senate and House of Representatives to renounce the Supreme Court decision on desegregating education and schools. The other narrative represented by Reverend William H. Borders' confrontation of segregation in 1957 decided on a non-violence strategy to fight segregation after the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama. Both the Southern Manifesto of 1956 and Reverend William H. Borders' confrontation...
Words: 1939 - Pages: 8
...Health Inquiry, Global Health Inequities Introduction: The Millennium Development Goals (or MDG) are a set of 8 goals set by the world’s nations in hope of reducing poverty by 2015. These 8 goals address poverty, education, equality, disease and the environment. Each goal has a targets and indicators we are aiming to achieve by 2015. The purpose of this report is to report on the history, objectives and constitution of the MDG’s and the success and effectiveness of the MDGs. History of MDGs: In the 1990’s the United Nation (UN) member states went through a historically extraordinary UN press conference process. This conference was aimed at building consensus on development priorities for the 21st century. However, at the end of the 1990’s the governments of the conference experienced conference fatigue and feared the process launched by the conferences was losing steam. In September 2000 in New York there was a large gathering of world leaders called the Millennium Summit. This was the largest gathering of world leaders in history including 189 UN member-states. At the Millennium Summit the United Nation Millennium Declaration was adopted as a result of a series of global conferences held during the 1990’s. The UN saw the Millennium Summit as an opportunity to bring back the development of priorities for the 21st century. It was at this Millennium Summit that the Millennium Declaration set in motion a global partnership and was signed by 147 heads of states....
Words: 3629 - Pages: 15
...Social stratification- is systematic inequalities among groups of people 1. Wealth and income (social class) 2. Racial inequality 3. Gender inequality. Equality/inequality -Ontological equality -Equality of opportunity -Equality of condition -Equality of outcome Why inequality exists? Inequality in wealth and access to resources is generated by three processes: 1.) Unequal division of labor and/or low mobility across occupations. 2.) Surplus or abundance of resources 3.) The desire to accumulate wealth and assets Types of social mobility: mobility refers to movement between different position within a system of social stratification 1. Horizontal 2. Vertical 3. Structural 4. Exchange Why the class structure is changing -Massive growth in inequality between the rich and the poor. Called the “Great U-Turn” -Shrinking of the working class, with some growth in middle class and working poor. -Growth of poverty and the “underclass” -Rate of poverty is increasing twice as fast as population growth Why income inequality is increasing -Largely due to the increasing concentration of wealth at the very top of the income distribution. consequences of income inequality -High levels of income inequality reduces social cohesion, overall health, overall wealth, and education -Increases crime, debt, and political polarization Social construction of race -Instead, social scientists argue that “race” is socially constructed. Racial...
Words: 2093 - Pages: 9
...ECONOMICS _____________________________________________________________________________________ WEEK 1: HOW ECONOMISTS THINK * What are preferences? Preferences refer to all of the objectives an individual wants to achieve that might motivate a choice among a set of alternatives. * What does it mean for an individual’s preferences to be rational? Please explain the concepts of costs and benefits and the reasoning process used by a rational individual. A rational individual will try to make the best possible use of his/her scarce resources, usually choosing an activity that has the highest utility. Rational preferences possess 2 properties, which are completeness and transitivity. Completeness means that choices can be ranked in an order of preference. For instance, an individual will have a preference when faced with two choices. Transitivity means actions can be compared with other actions. As an example, if action a is preferred to b, and action b is preferred to c, then a is preferred to c. A benefit is the maximum unit of currency amount you would be willing to pay to do x, while the cost is the value of all the resources you must give up in order to do x. The cost-benefit approach to decisions states that an individual should do an activity x if the benefit exceeds the cost. Relating to cost, in the process of coming up with a decision, a rational individual will take into account opportunity costs and ignore sunk costs. * New theories argue that...
Words: 22938 - Pages: 92
...Print Principles of Macroeconomics: Ch 1 Problems and Applications flashcards | Easy Notecards front 1 back 1 a. Money spent on a new car could of been put in saving or used for food, clothing, vacation expenses, education expenses etc. b. When deciding how much money to allocate towards national parks, members of Congress much calculate the tradeoff with other important expenses such as national defense, infrastructure (bridges and roads), social programs, education etc. c. Opening a new factory may limit investments in other projects, operation expenses, capital on hand etc. d. Tradeoffs a professor should consider when deciding how much to prepare for a class include time spent with family, personal activities and research. e. A recent college graduate that goes to graduate school would tradeoff earning money now with a full time job and the money it costs to go to graduate school. Describe some of the tradeoffs faced by each of the following: a. a family deciding whether to buy a new car b. a member of Congress deciding how much to spend on national parks c. a company president deciding whether to open a new factory d. a professor deciding how much to prepare for class e. a recent college graduate deciding whether to go to graduate school front 2 back 2 The benefits of a vacation will vary from person to person. You are trying to decide whether to take a vacation. Most of Most people associate a vacation with relaxation, peace and a the costs of the vacation (airfare...
Words: 2225 - Pages: 9
...Many Americans across the United States are faced with income inequality. These income inequalities have many negative effects on communities and neighborhoods. These income inequalities also have a couple positives changes as well. Only time will tell how the economic state of the middle class and lower classes will improve or continue to fall into harder times. Johnson and Rhodes state “where you live clearly affects how you grow up”, which is absolutely true (p. 387)! Those that live in poverty may also deal with school systems and other institutions such as clinics that don’t have enough funding to go around. The wealth distribution has been a continuous problem that has no simple answer, what once may have seemed like a private trouble...
Words: 1306 - Pages: 6
...areas of their lives, but most importantly, it affects their education. For this reason, it is imperative that parents, teachers, administrators, and communities ban together to ensure that at-risk students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are given the same opportunities as those from a higher socioeconomic background. We can do this by eliciting the best teachers, quality schools, and administrators to instruct these disadvantaged children. We can also do this as parents by making sure that we have educational attainment as our goal for our children by providing different instructional avenues in the home to facilitate learning and desire for learning by our children. If all of these parts of the puzzle can be put in place correctly, then at-risk youth at least have an equal opportunity to succeed in this world of inequality that we all live. Equality in the public school system is a joke. In other words, it does not exist. There are certain criterion that must be met before schools can even start to be considered equal: “equal access, common curriculum, differential curriculum, desegregated schooling, and equality of results” (Riordan 2004, p. 2). In some underdeveloped countries, certain people are excluded from an education, from the poor to the women, it just depends. Another extent to where people are excluded is common curriculum. Even though this was set out for the benefit of all children in school, it proved to not be equal because blacks were still segregated...
Words: 4233 - Pages: 17
...The Fourth Demography Forum 6 and 7 May 2013 (Brussels) Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion The Fourth Demography Forum Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................... 3 Opportunities for young adults ............................................................................ 4 Improving the work-life balance .......................................................................... 5 Enabling people to be active longer ...................................................................... 6 Successful inclusion of second-generation migrants ............................................... 7 Regions in rapid demographic and economic decline and inequalities within regions ... 8 Investing in Europe's demographic future - how the SIP will support the drive towards extending Europe's demographic dividend ............................................................ 9 Conclusions .....................................................................................................10 May 2013 2 Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion The Fourth Demography Forum Some 320 participants attended the Forum opened by Commissioner Andor. This report was drafted by the Forum organisers on the basis of the delivered speeches. Any possible errors or omissions are to be imputed to the Forum organisers Introduction In his welcoming speech, Commissioner Andor underlined our duty to...
Words: 3379 - Pages: 14
