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Essay #2 for Written Comm.

I thought this one kinda stunk, but he still gave me a 95% on it...

Reigning Elitism

In New York school districts, “The inequity is clear” (Kozol 113). Children in the poverty stricken districts are likely to receive a poorer education due to overcrowded classrooms, below-par teachers and lack of quality educational resources such as books and computers. It stands to be reasoned these students, upon graduation, are ill-prepared for a college education. However, these students remain the most likely to receive financial aid and scholarship money due to their financial need and, more often than not, minority status. A college education, which was once available only to the elite, is now available to the masses (James 135). This is regardless of their educational qualifications. The attempt to achieve equality by making college available to everyone has drawn a number of under qualified students into colleges, and this needs to be remedied.

Conditions in poor New York school districts are appalling (Kozol 113-120). While something should be done to remedy this problem, the issue of whether the students who have spent their lives in schools that do not adequately prepare them for college should nonetheless be allowed to attend college. The controversial answer is no. Initially it seems unfair these students are once again not given the same opportunities as students of rich districts. Indeed it is not fair. However, it is also unfair to subject taxpayers, professors and fellow college students to the calamity of under qualified students who will likely drop out before their graduation upon finding it is too difficult. It is not that the students of poor school districts are less intelligent, that would be an ignorant and inaccurate claim, they simply have not received the preparation necessary for rigorous college courses.

Instead of allowing all students to go to college upon graduation, perhaps a new option should be made available to these students as a better transition from their poorly-funded schools to college. Community colleges have been stigmatized to the point where students now see them as an undesirable last resort, but such institutions would better prepare students who have not had the advantage of good schooling up until the point of high school graduation. A governmentally-funded program of this nature would actually lead to less money wasted on the financial assistance provided for students who are not yet equipped to handle college courses and will therefore drop out before their education is complete.

Although inequality is vehemently protested among students from low-income households and minority status, it is virtually ignored among those of the higher income bracket and of the majority. Scholarship programs geared toward those of lower income and those who are minorities are counterproductive. To be denied scholarship money based on your economic status or because you are not a minority is no different than being denied scholarships because of the converse. Because of such programs, which are in the majority, it is likely students who are less qualified for the scholarships are chosen based only on their minority status, a phenomenon which Tom Gieryn of Indiana University calls ‘the haunting presence of irrelevant characteristics.’ These less qualified students who are receiving funding based in the most part on the color of their skin or their parents lack of money often waste the scholarship money they were awarded by leaving college before graduation because they were not prepared for it.

Inequality is writhing among those who belong to the poverty-stricken class. They are undeniably not being given the same opportunities of rich students. However, this is a problem that needs to be solved at the root of the problem, not with a last-leg attempt to give them a chance to go to college. This opens colleges to ill-prepared students who will not be able to survive in the courses their earlier education has not prepared them for. Community colleges and other such programs would be incredibly beneficial to students who have been done the injustice of not receiving a proper education, and scholarship and governmental programs need to take ability into account before minority status or financial situations. The attempt to achieve equality by making college available to everyone has drawn a number of under qualified students into colleges, and there are many ways in which this can be remedied.