Essay 1
Our nation pursues the ideal that what we look like or where we come from should not determine the benefits or burdens that we bear in our society. Unfortunately, for African Americans, one of the largest minority groups within the United States, this is not a reality. In fact, life has been altered from the moment their lives began as an individual of color.
Today, many people tend to remember the victories of African Americans that include abolition of slavery, desegregation, the civil rights movement, and the right to vote before women. People tend to forget the centuries of ugly racism, oppression and violence. The times of slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching and segregation along with the hardship of having no political voice. Many disregard that for every social policy throughout history with what appeared to be an open door, just became another obstacle for Blacks and step up for Whites. Social policies and government programs have neglected and shortchanged African Americans for decades.
Today, African Americans continue to face economic, social and health disparities within society when compared to its white counterparts. African Americans are struggling with unemployment and poverty. According to Fletcher (2013) in 2012, the black unemployment rate was 14.0 percent, 2.1 times the white unemployment rate (6.6 percent). This rate is higher than the average national unemployment rate of 13.1 percent.
For those African Americans who are employed, many are unable to support their families. The minimum wage today is $7.25. This is far from a living wage. In 2011, a full-time year-round worker needed to earn $11.06 an hour to keep a family of four out of poverty. But more than a third of black workers (36 percent) do not earn hourly wages high enough to keep a family of four out of poverty (CITE).
Poverty is being experienced by more Blacks than Whites. Poverty rates for blacks greatly exceeds the national average. In 2010, 27.4 percent of blacks were poor, compared to 9.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). High percentages of poverty have led many African Americans into low resourced communities with adverse housing conditions. In addition to much higher poverty rates, Blacks suffer from concentrated poverty. Nearly half (45 percent) of poor black children live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty, but only a tenth (12 percent) of poor white children live in similar neighborhoods. Poor housing conditions and neighborhoods not only have economic and social challenges with low employment rates, high poverty rates, higher crime rates and acts of violence. There is also serious health concerns.
Poor black neighborhoods have environmental hazards that impact health. A very serious one is higher exposure to lead, which inhibits learning, lowers earnings, and heightens crime rates (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2013). While rates of lead exposure have been declining for all races over the years, African American children continue to have the highest exposure rate (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2013). Poor black neighborhoods also have a higher frequency of alcohol and fast food chains compared to wealthy and white neighborhood. These poor areas also have less opportunities for physical activity because of high crimes rates and scarcity of green space (Acevedo-Garcia 2006, 132). Bottom line, African Americans experience health problems that coincides with unemployment, low wages, poverty and residential limitations.
The health problems are one issue but the larger concern is not having the coverage to treat them. Unemployment and low wage careers lead many African Americans to be uninsured and underinsured. Currently, African Americans are 55 percent more likely to be uninsured than white Americans. In 2013, 17% of African Americans were uninsured. The Affordable Care Act enacted by the Obama administration works to address affordability, accessibility and quality for African Americans and others with limited opportunity to appropriate healthcare. This is an imperative social policy because it finally recognizes the denial of quality healthcare to specific ethnic groups.
The five major provisions for consumers under the Affordable Care Act includes free preventive care, coverage for young adults under 26, coverage for individuals with preexisting conditions, bans health insurance companies from arbitrarily canceling your health insurance because of a newly acquired illness and limits insurance companies from continuation of care claims (repeated tests for same medical concern) (Barusch, 2015).These provisions are all significant but it is important to highlight the change in coverage for individuals with preexisting conditions.
Beginning in 2014, insurance companies are prohibited from denying coverage, charging higher premiums, or excluding central health services from coverage due to pre-existing conditions. This will benefit all Americans because pre-existing conditions cross are experienced by all group memberships. Nearly 65 million non-older adult Americans or one in every four people have been diagnosed with a pre-existing condition. This consists of more than 19 million people of color, mostly African Americans and Latinos. Approximately 25% of African Americans have been diagnosed with a pre-existing condition. While these numbers are large, people of color are likely to be underrepresented in the analysis, due to the fact they are more likely to be uninsured and substantially less likely to get regular medical care. But for those who have been diagnosed studies have found African Americans have the highest morality rate of any racial and ethnic group for cancer generally and for most major cancers: stomach, liver, prostate and colon. African American women are more likely to die from breast cancer. Blacks are 77% more likely than whites to be at risk for diabetes. African Americans are also twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes and are diagnosed with AIDS at nine times the rate of Whites. Cancer, diabetes and AIDS are all life threatening illness and require healthcare for the rest of an individual’s life. Even for a patient in remission, life becomes a journey of appointments. The pre-existing coverage protection will give African Americans a say in their healthcare. An autonomous decision on the right to be healthy and happy, a right that many of us who have always had healthcare take for granted. In the short term, this condition will provide healthcare to many African Americans who were denied or accepted with no ability to pay obscene premium prices. It will allow more black men, women and children to walk into a doctor’s office rather than an emergency room. It will allow a child with a cold to be treated before it becomes the pneumonia. In the long term, whether many republicans see it or not, this will benefit everyone. For example, there is long term benefits when an African American is treated correctly for diabetes. There will be less emergencies visits, less major operations down the road and ultimately less healthcare dollars spent. The American way is fast. We never have patience for change, if not immediate than it must not be working. The irony is African Americans have been forced to be patient from the moment they arrived in the United States, starting with patience for freedom. The Affordable Care Act is crucial for more than just the less fortunate. It is vital for the humanity of our nation and I look forward to witnessing the changes in our healthcare system.

Essay 2
Education can be defined as a systematic process of receiving and giving knowledge, studying information, learning life lessons, or going through an experience. Nonetheless, no matter how one defines education, our nation’s social policies believe each and every child is entitled to equal access to educational opportunity. Even those children who suffer from disabilities. Although it took decades for disabled children to be recognized as worthy of education today federal policies such as The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) protect disabled children and their educational needs.
In 1954, The Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka addressed equal education opportunity and banned school segregation. This implied every child should have the capability to learn but disregarded a child with a disability. It wasn’t until 1975 that President Ford implemented the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. This act first recognized children of disabilities in the education system. It required states that received federal funds to provide “free and appropriate public education” to children with disabilities (Barusch, 2015). By enacting this landmark piece of legislation, Congress opened public school doors for millions of children who were once denied and laid the foundation of the country’s commitment to ensuring that children with disabilities have opportunities to grow, learn and develop within their communities.
In 1990, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was merged into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The primary goals of the act include protecting the rights of children with disabilities and providing parents a voice within their child’s education. IDEA guarantees students with disabilities have access to free and appropriate education (FAPE), regardless of the severity of the disability. Every child will have an individualized education program (IEP). Schools are required to provide special education in the least restrictive environment. In other words, if possible, children should be educated in a regular classroom. Additionally, the educational environment should include related and necessary services for a child such as counseling, therapy, health services and rehabilitation. Parents are given a say in their child’s education. They are certified to make schooling decisions and participate in planning educational programs. Parents are allowed to appeal placement along with other decisions. Lastly, IDEA protects the child and family with strict confidentiality of records. (Barusch, 2015).
The act covers children from infancy through high school graduation or age 21, whichever comes first. Also, not every child with learning and attention issues is eligible for special education services. First, a child must be found to have one of the 13 kinds of disabilities that IDEA covers: autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment (including ADHD), specific learning disability (including dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia, among others), speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment, including blindness (CITE).
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is federally funded three state grant programs and multiple discretionary grant programs. The main section of the act, Part B, allows grants to state and local education agencies to offset part of the K-12 and preschool disabled children education expenses. Part C allows infant and toddler state grants for pre-kindergarten services and early intervention programs. Part D and Part E authorize discretionary grants to state and local education agencies for a variety of special education purposes such as research, evaluation, and the training and recruitment of personnel. The funding formulas to distribute to states is practically the same, but Congress separately allocates total funds for each section.In fact, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) also requires each state to maintain its level of state financial support for special education and related services from one year to the next. In the 2015-2015 school year, IDEA total funding was $12.50 billion, of which $11.47 billion is dedicated to IDEA Part B Section. This is a large sum of money but adovcates still believe many aspects of the act are underfunded. In addition, many believe certain groups are paying the price.
The policy appears to have good intentions with hopes of integration and equality within the educational system but has led to a number of drawbacks for people of color and the poor. For more than four decades, African Americans have been disproportionately represented in special education. In 2001, The Harvard University Civil Rights Project concluded within the past 25 years our nation’s school districts continue to disproportionately and improperly place minority students in special education classes despite special education services and civil rights protections. In 2008, The U.S. Department of Education reported that African Americans represented “ 15% of all students, they represented 21% of students in the special education category of specific learning disabilities, 29% in the category of emotional disturbance, and 31% in the category of mental retardation. (CITE)”
The 2007 Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act, revealed Black students 6 through 21 years of age were about 1.5 times more likely to receive special education services under IDEA than same-age students in all other racial/ethnic groups combined. Black students between the ages of 6 and 21 were 2.8 times more likely to receive special education services under IDEA for mental retardation, and 2.2 times more likely to receive services for emotional disturbance than same-age students of all other racial/ethnic groups combined. There are two ways to look at this data. Children of color who require special needs are receiving them or teachers are using special education resources as a way to remove children of color from the classroom. This is very concerning and exemplifies the complaints African Americans have had for years. Social policies intend to help those who need it but somehow becomes just one more obstacle for African Americans to overcome. Yes the policy is in place but does it necessarily help or hinder people of color? It appears that often times minority students are misclassified, segregated, or inadequately served, Special education may in fact contribute to a denial of equality of opportunity, with devastating results in communities throughout the nation (Harvard Civil Rights Project, 2000). This same feeling of misclassification and segregation can also go on within poor communities with poorly funded schools. The government puts tons of money into education each year allowing for extra help to those who need it, but are those who need it receive it? The challenge is correctly classifying children despite behavioral and social issues that are often seen in low income communities.

http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/ http://www.epi.org/publication/unfinished-march-overview/ http://familiesusa.org/blog/worry-no-more-applies-to-all-pre-existing-conditions-and-communities-of-color http://kff.org/disparities-policy/issue-brief/the-impact-of-the-coverage-gap-in-states-not-expanding-medicaid-by-race-and-ethnicity/ http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/the_aca_helps_african_americans_fact_sheet_0.pdf

Essay 2 https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-rights/how-idea-protects-you-and-your-child http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/docs/06_01_01.pdf