This paper will discuss some of the issues regarding race and equality in education. The first part of the paper will briefly discuss the history of educational equality. The second part of the paper will describe the differing views of equal opportunities in education. The third part of the paper will examine some results of studies which suggest that educational opportunities are not equal in the United States. The fourth part of the paper will discuss some of the problems with attempts at reform.
The importance of education in later life is constantly demonstrated by statistics which show a disparity in earnings between individuals with varying education levels. This disparity can be magnified by racial differences. Although the disparity in earnings between whites and blacks decreased during the period of 1959 to 1979, what disparity remained could largely be explained by the disparity in education between the two groups. There was still a large gap between the percentage of white who attended college and the percentage of non-Asian nonwhites wno attended college. In addition, although blacks and whites had roughly the same high school enrollment rates in 1980, the percentage of whites who graduated from high school was far higher than the percentage of blacks (Sandefur & Pahari, 1989, pp. 216-18).
The idea of equality of opportunity in education has changed over time. In preindustrial Europe, a child's opportunities were limited largely by the status of his or her family. Thus, a child's status as an adult would not likely change from that of
2his orherfather. A child's education was the responsibility of
the family, since they had to teach what was necessary for the survival of the family. Consequently, equality of education meant nothing. With the industrial revolution, economic organizations developed outside of the household, providing children with occupational mobility outside of their families....