The Education System of the United States of America: Equity in K-12 and Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter examines the tension that exists within the American educational system as it promotes equity in the service of democracy while reinscribing social inequity in the service of capitalism. While issues of equity in education are impacted by issues of race, class, disability, and gender, the primary focus in this chapter will be the basis on which race shapes American curriculum and schools. The chapter will review the social structures within communities and schools that serve to maintain inequality, particularly the Detroit context as a microcosm of housing segregation in the USA that has served to keep schools unequal on the basis of race.Furthermore, this chapter will examine attempted remedies embedded in equity-based efforts, standardization, and educational programs that have emerged from residential mobility trends. Examined are trends stemming from the traditional neighborhood public school model in Detroit and its surrounding suburbs, beginning from the Civil Rights era, continuing into the decades that followed, until the school of choice movement in the present day. Inequity in American schools is deeply intertwined with issues of inequity in society. Economic and social inequality across community boundaries are often reinforced in schools and inequitable policies in schools and maintain segregation by race. These issues extend from the quality and availability of preschool programs to schools of choice programs, competitive college access, and vocational training. This chapter will conclude by examining some of the movements and means in which schools and education continue to serve as spaces of resistance and locations to challenge social inequity.