The most striking
information conveyed by the documentary, Discounted Dreams: High Hopes and Harsh
Realities at America’s Community Colleges, is the woeful underfunding of these
institutions compared to four-year colleges.
Even primary schools are funded at a higher rate, per student, than
community colleges. There seems to be a
punitive element contained in this equation.
The majority of these schools serve a population
that has already “failed” in some way.
People that vote, and the politicians that represent them, regularly
vocalize their disinclination to commit more funds to people that aren’t likely
to succeed. Why should we care if
Krystal Jenkins passes her math class? She, purportedly, had access to the same
type and quality of education as did everyone else and she didn’t take
advantage of it. What is unspoken, but
often supposed, is that people, like Kristal, that haven’t converted their
educational opportunities into success haven’t done so willfully. They are
considered lazy, foolish or not interested in being a participatory member of
mainstream society. In addition, Krystal
fulfills a vital purpose in an economy that requires an army of low-wage workers
with basic literacy skills. In addition,
as the economy stagnates, competition in the job market is fierce and low wage
workers are controlled by the fear of losing their jobs and the bleak fact that
missing even one paycheck can precipitate personal disaster.
There’s a lot of
work to be done in this area. People
like Krystal need to be empowered with the knowledge that their subsistence
level existence isn’t natural or inevitable.
People that have the ability to advocate for themselves need to be
involved in the political process and vocalize the other side of the equation:
that often people that “fail” do so because they have been disadvantaged from
day one. They never had equality with
regard to educational opportunities and that the policies imposed by mainstream
society are, in large part, responsible
for their failure.
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