Education Is Not for Everyone

Education is not for everyone

Mark St. Croix

Columbia Southern University

EH 1010

June 7, 2016

Introduction

The education system in this country has been ineffective in achieving what it set out to do as cases of the low to middle class and poor our country are rising. The need for reforms in the system is therefore apparent so we can enable it to provide the educational assistance to the many people who look at it for a better living in the country and a better life. I would like to see reforms to be carried out in the system giving members of a community, rich and poor, an equal chance to make the best out of their education and lives which is a basic need that should be afforded, not only in the country but all over the world today. This paper therefore looks at the correlation between poverty and the attainment of a quality education in the country, using data provided by different educational bodies. The paper will end with a conclusion that will recap the main points and hopefully better explain this dilemma affecting the world today. (Iceland, 2013).

Communities of the poor have been denied adequate educational opportunities due to the expensive nature that has become a norm in mainstream America and has served to make education purely a goal of the rich and those who have an athletic talent. A case in point is the data released by the National School Boards Association (NSBA) of a survey conducted among graduates of high school who did not seek a college education in 2014. That survey indicated the major reason for not enrolling for a college was due to the inability to raise enough money for tuition. This represented a whopping 23% percent of the number of persons who did not enroll for college in the country. It goes without saying that poverty compromises on the ability of persons to gain a college education and continues to tie them down to the web of poverty should they somehow scrape enough to attend college. The rate however lowers with time as the persons who never attended college direct from high school return at a later date. This can be attributed to the fact that they seek employment early on after high school to enable them fund their college education. This is another effect of poverty in the education system of our country (Iceland, 2013).

It is worth noting, the rate of advancement from high school to college still has a long way to go in ensuring equal opportunities for all in this country. This can be illustrated using the data released by the department of education on the number of people who successfully advanced to college after graduating from the high school. Only 88% of students who graduate from high schools in the country enroll for college education and this leaves out a staggering 12% of others who qualify to be in college but are not in a position of paying for the college education. This depicts the sad predicament in the country that serves to show that education is no longer affordable to all in the country and therefore jeopardizes the ability of the poor to benefit from it (National School Boards Association, 2012).