Wisconsin Education

Creating a Level Playing Field for Wisconsin Education

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It is a well known fact that the educational outcome of our children is either boosted or hindered by their families ' socioeconomic backgrounds and while this fact is hardly fair to those underprivileged students (and despite a few halfhearted but well-meaning policies against it this inequality is likely to persist (Wisconsin 2006 . Although the rates for high school completion between whites and minorities seem to be slowly equaling out , a 1999 report from the U .S

. Department of Education showed that nationwide while 27 .5 of whites had received a Bachelor 's degree , only 12 .2 of blacks had attained that same level of education (Wisconsin 2006 . In the State of Wisconsin , 15 .8 of whites have a Bachelor 's Degree , while only 6 .9 of blacks have the same , only about half of the nationwide percentage for blacks (Demographic Pro 2004

In the Wisconsin school districts , the most important reason for the disparity in education between blacks and whites seems to be centered once again on socioeconomic ills . In 1954 the U .S . Supreme Court unanimously agreed that segregating schoolchildren by race was unconstitutional , however fifty years later , while the ideas and decisions of 1954 seem fairly straightforward , the reality of the situation is a little less clear . In the Milwaukee area , the portion of the population that is black or Hispanic is rising , and the gap between black and white in Wisconsin as a whole is among the largest in the United States (Borsuk 2004 . Wisconsin has struggled with the task of overcoming that particular stigma and in education at least has made some inroads , but much work remains to be done

The difference in test scores on a recently released federal government report between white and black eighth graders was larger in Wisconsin than in any other state in the United States (Borsuk 2004 . Keep in mind that white students in Wisconsin are on par educationally with the rest of the United States , yet a higher percentage of black eighth graders from Wisconsin scored below basic - the lowest category Previous studies also confirm that Wisconsin again takes the lead in the gap between incarceration rates between blacks and whites , and that racial separation is the predominant pattern for neighborhoods (Borsuk 2004 . If racial separation is considered normal ' or usual in the average neighborhood , then changing that in the schools systems represents a huge obstacle

When the desegregation plan went into effect the Milwaukee Public School system was 60 white , and now it is about 15 white , but there are few schools that have substantial enrollment of both black and white students . This means that the white children are leaving public schools to attend private schools , which helps very little in the overall desegregation efforts . Elizabeth Burmaster , Wisconsin 's state superintendent of schools says , I believe that in Wisconsin the gap is very directly correlated to economic disadvantage (Borsuk 2004

Low income kids...