Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

Campbell, Doug. "Academic Alternatives." Region Focus Vol. 11, No. 2. Spring 2007: 12-19. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 01 May 2012

The article “Academic Alternatives” by Doug Campbell is about school choice and how money can affect your school choice. It talks about a program which includes vouchers for the parents with not a lot of money. These vouchers cover the full cost of tuition, and the money used to pay for them follows students to their schools. Most of these programs in the United States are small; many are just getting started.

I chose this article because it not only talks about the how money affects your school choice but it also talks about one possible solution which would help parents to pay less for tuition and the money used to pay for them follows students to their schools.

Conan, Neal. "Low-Income Students and College Education." NPR. NPR, 15 Apr. 2004. Web. 9 May 2012. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1838668>.

The podcast “Low-Income Students and College Education” by Neal Conan is about that College costs a lot of money and it is impossible for low-income families to afford college nowadays. 1965 they tried to make College affordable for everybody and created some programs. Some schools like Harvard still have programs for poor families. In the interview they talk about how the US should refocus on class and not just on racial issues. Since 1965 the number of low-income students attending college has increased a lot but the number of middle class students attending college has decreased. From the students that are going to college today are 3 percent low-income students and 45 very rich students, so it is more likely to run into a very rich student at colleges than into a poor student.

This interview is worthwhile because the guests all know what they are talking about and it is very interesting to see different views from inside. It also gives facts about how many low-income students actually go to college and how many rich students do. It talks about special programs that should help poor families but they also say that it does not really work.

Wakefield, Julie. "Learning the Hard Way." Environmental Health Perspectives. June 2002: A298-A305. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 01 May 2012.

The article “Learning the Hard Way” by Julie Wakefield is about how many schoolchildren in the United States have to go to a certain school because they do not have enough money to go somewhere else. At that school they are then exposed on an almost daily basis to environmental hazards including volatile organic chemicals, airborne lead and asbestos, and noise pollution while they are at school. This article shows that your income does not only affect your education since it is almost impossible to concentrate and to learn in a school like that but it also shows that it can be unhealthy. Few federal laws currently protect students from such threats but several states have adopted measures that address these issues. Studies have shown that students concentrate less in an atmosphere like that.

The article “Learning the Hard Way” shows how extreme some problems in some schools are and how they affect a student’s education and his or her health. This example is one of the worst case scenarios. But this article makes you think about how many problems in this country are not solved and in some states there are not even laws against something like that.

Walters, Pamela Barnhouse, Jean C. Robinson, and Julia C. Lamber. "In Search of Equality in School Finance Reform." Dissent. Fall 2011: 28-33. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 01 May 2012.

The article “In Search of Equality in School Finance Reform” from Pamela Barnhouse Walters, Jean C. Robinson, and Julia C. Lamber is about the large differences in per-pupil spending money among school districts in the same state. It talks about how states are trying to equalize school financing. It also says that that does not work out really well, especially because some states and certain schools have ignored the rulings outright. The result of that is that there are still large differences and now there are “good” and “bad” schools. School finance reform would have dismantled this system that typically relegates children from poor communities and, as is less publicly recognized reserves the best public school for children in affluent communities. It talks about how there has to be a change because student’s education in poorly funded public school districts are getting affected. This article discusses the origins and current state of school finance reform.

I chose this article because it talks about that a person can get a different education depending on what school he or she is going to and how much money the school or the person has. It is also about how the United States tried to solve the problem but that there are still large differences between the different schools. 

Whyte, Chelsea, et al. "Charter Schools Graduate into Mainstream of US Education." McClatchy - Tribune News Service. 02 Oct 2011: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 07 May 2012.

The article “Charter Schools Graduate into Mainstream of US Education” by Chelsea Whyte is about Charter schools and if the education in those school is as good as in a public or private school. A charter school is a school which receives money from the government and therefore there are a lot of students that do not have a lot of money. In this article they talk about the fear of the parents which is that charter schools as an alternative to an education system is not good for the education of their children.

I chose this article because it shows alternatives for students that do not have a lot of money. And it talks about if those alternatives are good or not. Charter school are becoming more popular and in some parts of the US they are considered a mainstream form of education.

Research Outline

I.                    Introduction

A.      Everybody in the United States has the same education, not depending on their social status or their income.

B.      Here in the United States are different classes with people that have a different income. Some of these people are getting a different education and the question is how these two topics are related.

C.      How does having a low income or limited opportunities affect a student's education in the United States?

II.                  Equality in school finance reform

A.      There are large differences in per-pupil spending money among school districts in the same state

1.“By eliminating the large differences in per-pupil spending among school districts in the same state, it would have leveled the playing field between high-spending versus low-spending districts.”

B.      Student’s education in poorly funded public school districts are getting affected

1.“School finance reform would have dismantled this system that typically relegates children from poor communities to low-quality public schools (and, as is less often publicly recognized, reserves the best public schools for children in affluent communities).”

III.                School choice and how money can affect your school choice

A.      Program which includes vouchers for the parents with not a lot of money. These vouchers cover the full cost of tuition, and the money used to pay for them follows students to their schools.

1.“Vouchers and charters, magnet schools, and even publicly financed home schooling-almost every state, major school district, and large city has some sort of school-choice program or is considering one.”

B.      These programs are not really effective because they are small and not popular yet.

1.“The theory of school choice, as popularized by economist Milton Friedman, looks like a clean solution to the problem of poor-performing schools and the underachieving students who attend them.”

2.“The problem is that, even with the increasing number of school-choice programs nationwide, Friedman's notion remains mostly theoretical.”

IV.                School choices and the effects on student’s health

A.      Many schoolchildren in the United States have to go to a certain school because they do not have enough money to go somewhere else

1.Similarly, little attention is paid to the fact that the "good" education privileged children generally get needs to be a better education than what is available to most others.

B.      At that school they are then exposed on an almost daily basis to environmental hazards including volatile organic chemicals, airborne lead and asbestos, and noise pollution while they are at school

1.“The building impacted the health of 40% of the students and teachers," estimates John Santilli, chief of allergy and immunology at the nearby St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, who treated many of the afflicted pupils and staff over the years.”

2.“At least one teacher who was heavily exposed is on permanent disability, and others experienced breast cancers and miscarriages that Santilli says might be linked to exposure to secondary mold metabolites called mycotoxins, but more study is needed.”

C.      Few federal laws currently protect students from such threats but several states have adopted measures that address these issues

1.” But if our goal is to make significant progress in closing the gap in resources and opportunities between our best and worst schools, we need to do more than tinker around the edges of the current system.”

2.“We need to muster the political will and build the political coalitions necessary to make such a re-examination of the fundamentals possible.”

V.                  Charter schools’ education

A.      Is the education in those school is as good as in a public or private school?

1.“While only about 30 percent of Florida's charter schools met the standards last year, that figure was a mere 14 percent for public schools overall.”

B.      A charter school is a school which receives money from the government and therefore there are a lot of students that do not have a lot of money.

C.      Charter school are becoming more popular and in some parts of the US they are considered a mainstream form of education

1.“With more than 1.7 million students enrolled in nearly 5,500 schools and federal funding on the rise, charter schools are now widely considered a mainstream form of education”

VI.                College education and the costs

A.      College costs a lot of money and it is impossible for low-income families to afford college nowadays.

B.      The US should refocus on class and not just on racial issues.

1.“We made a lot of progress at the racial front but the dirty little secret of higher education has been that we have not addressed economic diversities”

2.“The outlook for low-income students is not good in a short term.”

C.      The number of low-income students attending college has increased a lot but the number of middle class students attending college has decreased.

1.“From the students that are going to college today are 3 percent low-income students and 45 very rich students, so it is more likely to run into a very rich student at colleges than into a poor student.”

VII.              Conclusion

A.      How does having a low income or limited opportunities affect a student's education in the United States?

B.      My first subtopic is about equalizing school reform because there are large differences in per-pupil spending money among school districts in the same state and how much money a student’s spends affects his/ her education. The next two subtopics are about how money affects a student’s school choice and how his/her school choice can even affect a student’s health. Good schools are expensive and a student with a low income cannot afford that; he has to go to a less expensive school and those schools are often not in a good condition. My article talks about one particular school. At that school they are then exposed on an almost daily basis to environmental hazards including volatile organic chemicals, airborne lead and asbestos, and noise pollution while they are at school.
The next subtopic is about Charter schools and if the education in charter schools is as good as in a regular public or private school. And the last subtopic talks about programs that could help students with a low income to still get a good education. The source that I used is especially about programs like that for colleges.

C.      My overall opinion is that money and especially a low income affect a student’s education in the United States a lot. Not having a lot of money leads to limited opportunities and influences a student’s school choice. The school choice affects a student’s education and as you can see in my example it can also affect his/ her health.

I think that it is good that there are opportunities and programs that are supposed to help students with a low income but I think that there are not enough programs like that. My article for example talks about how colleges like Harvard have programs like that but not every student is able to go to a university like Harvard and that is not just because of their income and that they cannot afford it.

D.     In the future people should pay more attention on classes and not just on racial issues. There should be more programs that help students with a low income. But I think that there is always going to be issues like that and problems with money influencing someone’s education. But if people focus more on solving that problem and create more programs and not just for colleges like Harvard but also for regular public schools it could get better in the future. But what if nobody is going to work on that issue?

Podcast 1

Low-Income Students and College Education

Summary:

The podcast “Low-Income Students and College Education” by Neal Conan is about that College costs a lot of money and it is impossible for low-income families to afford college nowadays. 1965 they tried to make College affordable for everybody and created some programs. Some schools like Harvard still have programs for poor families. In the interview they talk about how the US should refocus on class and not just on racial issues. Since 1965 the number of low-income students attending college has increased a lot but the number of middle class students attending college has decreased. From the students that are going to college today are 3 percent low-income students and 45 very rich students, so it is more likely to run into a very rich student at colleges than into a poor student.

Why is it worthwhile?

This interview is worthwhile because the guests all know what they are talking about and it is very interesting to see different views from inside. It also gives facts about how many low-income students actually go to college and how many rich students do. It talks about special programs that should help poor families but they also say that it does not really work.

Direct evidence:

“It really is encouraging what a few of these presidents of the university are doing”

“We made a lot of progress at the racial front but the dirty little secret of higher education has been that we have not addressed economic diversities”

“The outlook for low-income students is not good in a short term.”

Guests:

Arthur Levine
*President of the Teachers College at Columbia University

Walter Benn Michaels
*Head of English department at University of Illinois, Chicago

Richard Kahlenberg
*Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Greg Forster
*Researcher for the Manhattan Institute 

Link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1838668

Citation (MLA):

Conan, Neal. "Low-Income Students and College Education." NPR. NPR, 15 Apr. 2004. Web. 9 May 2012. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1838668>.

Article 4

Academic Alternatives​

Summary:

The article “Academic Alternatives” by Doug Campbell is about school choice and how money can affect your school choice. It talks about a program which includes vouchers for the parents with not a lot of money. These vouchers cover the full cost of tuition, and the money used to pay for them follows students to their schools. Most of these programs in the United States are small; many are just getting started.

Why is it worthwhile?

I chose this article because it not only talks about the how money affects your school choice but it also talks about one possible solution which would help parents to pay less for tuition and the money used to pay for them follows students to their schools.

Direct evidence:

“Vouchers and charters, magnet schools, and even publicly financed home schooling--almost every state, major school district, and large city has some sort of school-choice program or is considering one.

“The theory of school choice, as popularized by economist Milton Friedman, looks like a clean solution to the problem of poor-performing schools and the underachieving students who attend them.”

“The problem is that, even with the increasing number of school-choice programs nationwide, Friedman's notion remains mostly theoretical.”

Citation (MLA):

Campbell, Doug. "Academic Alternatives." Region Focus Vol. 11, No. 2. Spring 2007: 12-19. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 01 May 2012.

Article 3

Charter Schools Graduate into Mainstream of US Education

Summary:

The article “Charter Schools Graduate into Mainstream of US Education” by Chelsea Whyte is about Charter schools and if the education in those school is as good as in a public or private school. A charter school is a school which receives money from the government and therefore there are a lot of students that do not have a lot of money. In this article they talk about the fear of the parents which is that charter schools as an alternative to an education system is not good for the education of their children.

Why is it worthwhile?

I chose this article because it shows alternatives for students that do not have a lot of money. And it talks about if those alternatives are good or not. Charter school are becoming more popular and in some parts of the US they are considered a mainstream form of education

Direct evidence:

“While only about 30 percent of Florida's charter schools met the standards last year, that figure was a mere 14 percent for public schools overall.”

“With more than 1.7 million students enrolled in nearly 5,500 schools and federal funding on the rise, charter schools are now widely considered a mainstream form of education.”

Citation (MLA):

Whyte, Chelsea, et al. "Charter Schools Graduate into Mainstream of US Education." McClatchy - Tribune News Service. 02 Oct 2011: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 07 May 2012.

Second Article

Learning the Hard Way

Summary:

The article “Learning the Hard Way” by Julie Wakefield is about how many schoolchildren in the United States have to go to a certain school because they do not have enough money to go somewhere else. At that school they are then exposed on an almost daily basis to environmental hazards including volatile organic chemicals, airborne lead and asbestos, and noise pollution while they are at school. This article shows that your income does not only affect your education since it is almost impossible to concentrate and to learn in a school like that but it also shows that it can be unhealthy. Few federal laws currently protect students from such threats but several states have adopted measures that address these issues. Studies have shown that students concentrate less in an atmosphere like that.

Why is it worthwhile?

The article “Learning the Hard Way” shows how extreme some problems in some schools are and how they affect a student’s education and his or her health. This example is one of the worst case scenarios. But this article makes you think about how many problems in this country are not solved and in some states there are not even laws against something like that.

Two "pieces" of direct evidence:

“"The building impacted the health of 40% of the students and teachers," estimates John Santilli, chief of allergy and immunology at the nearby St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, who treated many of the afflicted pupils and staff over the years. At least one teacher who was heavily exposed is on permanent disability, and others experienced breast cancers and miscarriages that Santilli says might be linked to exposure to secondary mold metabolites called mycotoxins, but more study is needed. "There's a dearth of research on the impact of indoor pollutants on human health and especially on children," he says.”

“Only four states: Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, have laws on the books that cover the three key aspects of pesticide protection: posting, notifications, and integrated pest management (IPM). Thirty-one states have adopted pesticide laws that cover at least one such element, according to a survey by Beyond Pesticides entitled  The Schooling of State Pesticide Laws 2002 Update .”

Citation in MLA format:

Wakefield, Julie. "Learning the Hard Way." Environmental Health Perspectives. June 2002: A298-A305. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 01 May 2012.

First Article

In Search of Equality in School Finance Reform

Summary:

The article “In Search of Equality in School Finance Reform” from Pamela Barnhouse Walters, Jean C. Robinson, and Julia C. Lamber is about the large differences in per-pupil spending money among school districts in the same state. It talks about how states are trying to equalize school financing. It also says that that does not work out really well, especially because some states and certain schools have ignored the rulings outright. The result of that is that there are still large differences and now there are “good” and “bad” schools. School finance reform would have dismantled this system that typically relegates children from poor communities and, as is less publicly recognized reserves the best public school for children in affluent communities. It talks about how there has to be a change because student’s education in poorly funded public school districts are getting affected. This article discusses the origins and current state of school finance reform.

Why is it worthwhile?

I chose this article because it talks about that a person can get a different education depending on what school he or she is going to and how much money the school or the person has. It ism also about how the United States tried to solve the problem but that there are still large differences between the different schools.

Two "pieces" of direct evidence:

“When Americans embrace equality as an abstract principle, they generally fail to understand that  by definition  some groups reap huge benefits from the inequality endemic to American public schooling. Similarly, little attention is paid to the fact that the "good" education privileged children generally get needs to be a  better  education than what is available to most others. That's because a "good" education is what economists call a positional good: its value rises in inverse proportion to its scarcity.”

” But if our goal is to make significant progress in closing the gap in resources and opportunities between our best and worst schools, we need to do more than tinker around the edges of the current system. We need to muster the political will and build the political coalitions necessary to make such a re-examination of the fundamentals possible.”

Citation in MLA format:

Walters, Pamela Barnhouse, Jean C. Robinson, and Julia C. Lamber. "In Search of Equality in School Finance Reform." Dissent. Fall 2011: 28-33. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 01 May 2012.