All our schools, all our children, all our world.

After teaching in a Title 1 school this past semester, I can vouch for just how powerful economics are in education outcomes. I have seen how disadvantaged kids are being excessively punished by government policy.

Reports from a Stanford University show that "with a rising income achievement gap, a family's economic situation is a bigger determinative force in a child's academic performance than any other major demographic factor." 

Schools in destitute areas therefore require more resources than wealthy schools, but many high poverty schools receive less than their fair share of state and local funding, leaving less funding to recruit teachers, upgrade classrooms, reduce class sizes, and overall sustain good educational practices. (Obvious right?)

So what is the taxing problem facing American schools today? Put it all together and what do you get?

As David Sirota so poetically puts, "It's poverty and punitive funding formulas, duh."

It's too easy to just point fingers at teachers and/ or schools. The hard thing is to take a deep hard look at your own society, one that you are privileged by and examine the inequalities it creates. Doing this asks us to change resource-hoarding attitudes and encourage us to care about all our schools, all our children, all our world.