How come public schools in poorer neighborhoods aren’t as good as public schools in affluent neighborhoods?

Question

With everything going on in our nation (USA) and around the world, this question has come up many times: How come public schools in poorer neighborhoods aren’t as good as public schools in affluent neighborhoods?

Many people have been telling me that some states, like CA, have a general fund for public schools where they collect tax money and distribute it amongst schools evenly. Whether that fund exists or not, how come, for example, LAUSD schools in Crenshaw, CA are worse than schools in more affluent neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

I am having trouble finding articles or even understanding about this. I was hoping someone with more understanding can explain.

In: Other

Answer 1

Inter generational poverty is a bitch.

Taking aside the way in many states schools are funded by local property taxes which means wealthy areas have a ton of school funding and poor areas have poor funding, there’s a major uphill battle once you have multiple generations in poverty.

You have kids where parents don’t have a high level of education it’s hard for the parents to show to their kids the value of education.

You have kids where parents are working multiple jobs, they don’t have much time to sit with kids to go over homework.

You have girls who are looking down the barrel of 20 years working minimum wage jobs, who see having a baby and getting married at a way too young age as an escape, albeit wrongly.

You have kids who have to go get jobs in evenings and weekends, to either support family finances or be able to buy things more affluent teenagers take for granted, every hour spent doing this takes away from school and study time.

Then there’s a constant pressure of crime, that adds stress and strife to kids lives.

For many even if they do well, then what? The cost of college education is so high it may as well be at a campus on the moon.

Compare to an affluent area – the kids have parents who have university educations, their friends are all the same, they have a clear path ahead of them that sees them trying hard and staying in school, and any jobs are purely “character building” and often fancy volunteer type gigs to boost college applications, for degrees the kids can very realistically pursue due to well funded parents.