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It is a veritable fact that students from disadvantaged homes would most likely perform less well in school than their classmates who come from well-off households. And, unfortunately, the government has done little to narrow down the gap between the rich and the poor.
Sabrina Tavernise, in an article on The New York Times, suggests that this gap has created a chasm that not only separates the affluent from the underprivileged, but also contributes to the decline of the entire American education system.
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Parenting, income inequality, and culture are among the reasons for this growing gap in achievement. Well-off parents spend more time and money on their children, sending them off to ballet classes and music lessons. Poorer families, which are most likely headed by a single parent, are “increasingly stretched for time and resources.” Charles Murray, scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, argued that the divide between the better educated and the less educated has resulted to another type of divide – a cultural divide rooted on natural social forces, such as the tendency of wealthy people marrying other wealthy people.
So how can America narrow down this gap? Because the problem is so complex, there is no easy solution. Douglas J. Besharov, fellow at the Atlantic Council, says that blaming the rich for the problem ignores an important factor --- “two-earner household wealth, which has lifted the upper lifted class ever further from less educated Americans, who tend to be single parents.” Even experts do not have the faintest idea on how to go about this issue. As Besharov puts it, “the cupboard is bare.”
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North Central Texas Academy in Happy Hill Farm helps underprivileged students obtain quality education. Its website offers more information on life in its campus.
