In education policy circles, there's a constant debate (and a rancorous one at that) about how the country can close the "achievement gap" - generally defined as the gaping chasm between the scholastic achievement of rich white and Asian kids and low-income black and Hispanic kids.
Trying to pinpoint the roots of the gap can be a political minefield - some blame low-income parents' attitudes toward education, others say it's the lack of good teachers and resources. What doesn't get talked about as much is simply how much being poor totally sucks.
Published today in the Las Vegas Sun was this heartbreaking piece about the increasing numbers of homeless students attending the local public schools co-written by education reporter Emily Richmond. It makes you question a lot. When we think of students from "advantaged" backgrounds, we imagine kids whose parents took them to art museums and ballets and read to them every night.
Rarely, do we categorize getting enough to eat every day and having bed to sleep in as an education advantage, but sadly that's the reality.
From the Sun article:
In Mariah Velasquez’s case, homelessness has taken a toll on her emotions and her education.
Being homeless makes her “a little sad,” she says. The freckle-faced 7-year-old adds, “I’m angry sometimes.”
Daniel Velasquez later explains that his daughter sometimes shakes and shouts, which she never did before the family’s pick-up-and-leave living began about 12 months ago.
Mariah goes to Hollingsworth Elementary School, her second school in the past three months.
The family’s situation has improved, but it wasn’t long ago that most days started with only bread and butter for breakfast and ended with Mariah losing her homework and her temper.
Unfortunately, it's a trend that's occurring elsewhere. A couple years ago, the Baltimore Sun published an award-winning series, "On Their Own," a riveting story of two homeless high school seniors struggling to earn their diplomas.
We have to be careful about where we're heading. I don't think it's crazy to think if inequities in educational opportunities persist that we could become a country as stratified as India - a small, rich class of Brahmins at the top presiding over a giant class of publicly schooled Untouchables at the bottom.
It's also important for people like me, who did come from a privileged background, to stop and think: What if I were born into Mariah Velasquez's situation? Would I have ended up where I am now?
It might be hard to admit, but the answer is this: Almost certainly not.
