One of the major issues that Hoover suffered from was economic inequality. While this issue was not something exclusive to Hoover and could not be seen overtly, it was clearly present in other shapes and forms.

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Historically, this can be seen to be the trend. Since public schools are funded by property tax, in theory, there should be no major differences between the quality of education and number of services offered at various schools. However, much of this inequality can trace its roots back to the conflicts in the past. Some rationale also links race into the matter of poverty, as Ariel Jao does in her article, “Segregation, school funding inequalities still punishing Black, Latino Students”. She posits that much of this disparity that has developed over the years is a byproduct of the equal rights movement, with many of the minority groups living in low-income neighborhoods. Since these groups do not have as much money and do not pay as much in taxes, rather than the collective money being distributed equally, it goes proportionally to areas that pay more in taxes. What this does is create a vicious cycle where these minority groups are forced to have lower-quality education and be unable to get higher paying jobs. Since they can’t get higher-paying jobs, they are forced back into these lower-income neighborhoods and the cycle repeats. Through the process of being repeated over and over, the public education system has become a vessel by which to perpetuate this gap and not allow minority groups to prosper.

 

Socially, the same can be said. One of the main reasons that these systems are able to maintain this discrimination is due to the mindset of the people. In society, people generally tend to assume that those in lower-income neighborhoods are there due to their own faults and are not willing to equally share funding. These spirits of the air make people believe that they are worthier and therefore the schools that they go to should receive more funding since they pay more. One study conducted by Lauren Camera of US News finds that school districts with the highest levels of poverty receive on average $1000 less per student that those districts with the lowest levels of poverty. Yet, there are no signs that this will change in the near future. Society assumes that these children will not amount to anything because of the oppressive system and in turn perpetuate it. While many people do not do so willingly or knowingly, the biases that they hold towards these children causes them to be trapped by powers beyond their control through institutions such as schools.

 

Politically, actions have been taken to address this issue. The main legislation that has been used in recent years is the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The Title 1 program created by this act provided $14 billion to states to improve education. However, not only was the act proven to be ineffective, much of the evidence has shown that these Title 1 funds are being re-allocated to wealthier schools. Essentially, what ends up happening is a widening of the gap between poorer and richer schools and the continuation of economic inequality through the school system. A study conducted by the US Department of Education finds that schools that do receive Title 1 funds spend less state and federal money rather than use extra resources to help students. Rather than help the people that these schools are supposed to, they instead do not use that money, which is then moved to wealthier neighborhoods.

 

In short, the school system ends up continuing economic injustice by not giving funding or not using funding properly for schools in lower income neighborhoods and causing poorer students to be trapped in a lower social and economic status than they would otherwise be able to achieve.